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THE LIFE 



OF 



SHAKESPEARE. 



COPIED FROM THE BEST SOURCES, 
WITHOUT COMMENT. 



By DANIEL W. WILDER. 



$ 



BOSTON: I<T3f7>f^ 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. ' 

1893. 



77? »e?f 



Copyright, 1893, 
By D. W. Wilder. 



John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



THIS VOLUME 

IS INSCRIBED TO 

JOHN BARTLETT, A.M., 

0f GTamfrntoge, plag*. 

WITH THE ESTEEM AND LOVE BORN OF LONG YEARS OF FRIEND- 
SHIP, DATING FROM THE DAYS OF THE HARVARD MAGAZINE, 
AND FOLLOWING AND CONTINUING WITH EVERY 
EDITION OF HIS FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS. 

My friend has shown his appreciation of the king of men, not by prating 
about him, but by compiling the Shakespeare Phrase Book and the Complete 
Concordance of Shakespeare's Works. 

D. W. W. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



No brief and accurate biography of Shake- 
speare is now before the public ; none can be 
bought at any bookstore. This book is compiled 
to meet that want. The compiler has inserted no 
opinions of his own ; every statement here made 
is copied and duly credited. 

The readers of Shakespeare rapidly increase in 
numbers. They wish to know his life ; and all, 
except students of the dramatist, prefer a small 
volume. 

June, 1893. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



James Orchard HALLiwELL-PHiLLipps,agreat Shake- 
spearian scholar and antiquary, was born at Chelsea m 
1820, the son of Thomas Halliwell. He studied at Jesus 
College, Cambridge, and yet an undergraduate began that 
long career as an editor which he kept up almost till the 
close of life. His studies embraced the whole field of our 
earlier literature, — plays, ballads, popular rhymes and 
folk-lore, chap-books and English dialects ; and its fruits 
remain in the publications of the old Shakespeare and 
Percy societies. As early as 1839 he was elected Fellow 
of the Royal and Antiquarian societies. Gradually he 
came to concentrate himself upon Shakespeare alone, and 
more particularly upon the facts of his life, — the suc- 
cessive editions of his " Outlines of the Life of Shake- 
speare " ( 1848 ; 8th ed. 1889) recording the growing 
results of his discoveries. For many years he waged a 
brave warfare with fortune, but in 1872 he succeeded to 
the property of Thomas Phillipps, his first wife's father, 
and added that surname to his own. He made a royal 
use of his wealth, accumulating in his quaint house (Hol- 
lingbury Copse, near Brighton) an unrivalled collection 
of Shakespearian books, MSS., and rarities of every kind, 
and dispensing hospitalities to scholarly visitors from all 



Vlll INTRODUCTOKY. 

parts of England and America, as well as giving princely 
benefactions of books to Edinburgh University, Stratford, 
and Birmingham. Here he died, Jan. 3, 1889. The pri- 
vately printed Calendar (1887) of his collection embraced 
as many as eight hundred and four different items. By 
his will it was first offered, at the price of £7,000, to the 
corporation of Birmingham ; but it was not accepted. 
Apart from Shakespeare, his " Nursery Rhymes and 
Nursery Tales of England " (1845) and " Dictionary of 
Archaic and Provincial Words" (1817; 6th ed. 1868) 
will keep his memory from being forgotten. His mag- 
nificent edition in folio of the works of Shakespeare (16 
vols. 1853-65) was published at a price prohibitive to 
most students. — Chambers's Encyclopcedia, 1890. 

Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps says the " name Shakespeare 
probably arose in the thirteenth century, when surnames 
derived from personal occupations first came into general 
use in this country ; and it appears to have rapidly be- 
come a favorite patronymic. The origin of it is suffi- 
ciently obvious." 

" Some," says Camden, " are named from that which 
they commonly carried, — as Palmer, that is, Pilgrime, for 
that they carried palme when they returned from Hieru- 
salem ; Long-sword, Broad-speare, Fortescu, that is 
Strong-shield, and in some respect Break-speare, Shake- 
speare, Shot-bolt, Wagstaffe." (Remaines, ed. 1605, 
p. 111.) 

" Breakspear, Shakspear, and the lyke have bin sur- 
names imposed upon the first bearers of them for valour 
and feates of armes." (Verstegan's Restitution of De- 
cayed Intelligence, ed. 1605, p. 294.) 



INTRODUCTORY. IX 

"Shakeshaft and Drawsword were amongst the other 
old English names of similar formation. The surname 
of the poet's family was certainly known as early as the 
thirteenth century, there having been a John Shakespere 
living, apparently in Kent, in the year 1279, who is men- 
tioned in Plac. Cor. 7 Edw. 1 Kane. From this time the 
Shakespeares are found dispersedly in gradually increas- 
ing numbers until the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
turies, when they were to be met with in nearly every 
part of England. It cannot be said that during the 
latter periods the surname was anywhere an excessively 
rare one, but from an early date Shakespeares abounded 
most in Warwickshire." (H.-P. ii. 152.) 



JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 



1551. Richard Shakespeare, the poet's grand- 
father, was a farmer, and rented land under Eobert 
Arden, at Snitterfield, very near Stratford-on-Avon, 
in the fourth year of the reign of Edward VI. 
Richard Shakespeare is mentioned in legal papers 
dated 1535, 1550, and 1560, and in a will made in 
1543. He probably died in 1560 or 1561. He had 
two sons, Henry and John. 

John Shakespeare, the poet's father, probably 
born at Snitterfield, an obscure village, left his 
father's home about the year 1551, and soon be- 
came a resident of the neighboring borough of 
Stratford-on-Avon. 

1552. In April, 1552, John Shakespeare is fined 
twelve pence for maintaining a nuisance in front of 
his house. 

1556. In October, 1556, he bought two small 
freehold estates, — one a building in Henley Street, 
and the other in Greenhill Street. The road, eight 
miles long, from Henley-in-Arden to Stratford-on- 

l 



2 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 

Avon, has been known since the Middle Ages as 
Henley Street. 

John Shakespeare's business was that of a glover; 
after his marriage he speculated in wool, and dealt 
in corn and other articles. An entry in the Corpo- 
ration books of June, 1556, shows that he was a 
glover. 

i 6 A recognizance in the Controlment Roll of the twenty- 
ninth of Elizabeth shows that he was known in Stratford- 
on-Avon as a glover thirty years afterwards, 1586." 
(H.-P. ii. 297.) 

There were other glovers there who dealt in wool, 
yarn, and malt. 

" There can be little doubt that John Shakespeare, in 
common with other farmers and land-owners, often killed 
his own beasts and pigs, both for home consumption and 
for sale ; but it is in the highest degree improbable that 
his leading business was ever that of a butcher. [Aubrey 
states that he was a butcher.] If that had been the case, 
there would assuredly have been some allusion to the fact 
in the local records." (H.-P. ii. 329.) 

Mr. Phillipps gives the "Annals " of John Shake- 
speare. The first item is the nuisance record, 29 
April, 6 Edward VI., and the fine of twelve pence. 
"Hurnfridus Keynoldes xij.d, Adrianus Quyney, 
xij.d, et Johannes Shaky spere, xij.d, fecerunt ster- 
quinarium in vico vocato Hendley Streete," etc., — 
made a dung-heap in the place called Henley 
Street. 

1556. A suit of Thomas Siche "versus Johannem 
Shakyspere de Stretforde, in comitatu Warwicensi, 



JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 3 

glover," occupies two months and is gained by 
Shakespeare. In another suit this year he is called 
once " Shakyspere " and twice " Shakespere ; " in 
two others " Shakysper," in another " Shakispere," 
and in the last suit of the year he changes to 
" Shaksper." 

1557. Johannes Shakespere is on the list of a 
manorial jury. In October John Shakspeyre was a 
juror. In the court records of this year he is also 
" Shakysper " and " Shakspeyr." He was probably 
chosen one of the burgesses this year. 

" Every one in the poet's time spelt according to his 
fancy. So widely diffused was this anarchy in the realms 
of penmanship that it would have been exceedingly diffi- 
cult to have lighted upon an individual who would have 
cared for the preservation of uniformity even in the record 
of his own family surname." (H.-P. ii. vi.) 

He was elected ale-taster in 1557, his first office ; 
"an officer appointed for the supervision of malt 
liquors and bread. At about the same time he was 
received into the Corporation, taking the lowest 
rank, as was usual with new comers, — that of a 
burgess." In 1558 he was appointed one of the 
four petty constables ; re-elected October 6, 1559, 
and, on the same day, chosen one of the affeerors, 
or persons who fixed fines for offences. This last 
office he again filled in 1561, and in the same year 
was elected one of the chamberlains of the borough, 
an office that he held two years. His second ac- 
count to the Corporation was delivered in the first 
month of 1564. 



4 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 

In 1557 he married Mary Arden, the youngest 
daughter of Robert Arden, a wealthy farmer of 
Wilmecote, near Stratford-on-Avon, who had died 
a few months before. The date of the marriage is 
unknown. Robert Arden owned two farm-houses 
and a hundred acres of land at Snitterfield occupied 
by tenants, and a house and fifty acres of land at 
Wilmecote occupied by himself. Eobert Arden 
(frequently spelled Ardern), the father of Mary 
the poet's mother, is described in an indenture of 
1501 as the son of " Thome Ardern de Wylinecote." 
The grandfather of the poet, Eobert Arden, owned 
considerable estates at Snitterfield, bought in 1519 
and 1529. But he was a farmer, not a " county 
gentleman." He died in 1556. 

" Mary (Arden) Shakespeare, mother of the poet, died 
in 1608. She was the eighth and last daughter of Eobert 
Arden." (H.-P. ii. 171.) 

The name of her mother is unknown. Mary 
could not write or read, and made a mark for her 
signature. Her father, Eobert — 

" Reserved to his daughter Mary the reversion to a por- 
tion of a large estate at Snitterfield, her step-mother taking 
only a life-interest. Some part of this land was in the oc- 
cupation of Richard Shakespeare, the poet's grandfather, 
whence may have arisen the acquaintanceship between 
the two families. In addition to this reversion, Mary 
Arden received, under the provisions of her father's will, 
not only a handsome pecuniary legacy, but the fee-simple 
of a valuable property at Wilmecote. — the latter, which 
was known as Asbies, consisting of a house with nearly 
sixty acres of land. An estimate of these advantages, 



JOHN SHAKESPEAEE. 5 

viewed relatively to his own position, would no doubt 
have given John Shakespeare the reputation amongst his 
neighbors of having married an opulent heiress, his now 
comparative affluence investing him with no small degree 
of local importance." (H.-P. i. 29, 30.) 

Her father's will, made in November, 1556, makes 
her and her sister Alice his executors. " Allso I 
ordene and constytute and make my full exceqtores 
Ales and Marye, my dowghteres, of this my last 
will and testament, and they to have no more for 
their peynestakyng now as afore geven them." 

" It may be fairly concluded," says Halliwell- 
Phillipps, "that Mary 'was in her teens' when 
she married." She might act as executor although 
an " infant " in law. She was buried at Stratford- 
on-Avon, Sept. 9, 1688. Mr. Phillipps says of her 
son, "He would naturally have desired, if pos- 
sible, to attend the funeral, and it is nearly certain 
that he was at his native town in the following 
month." 

In the Stratford Eegister, " the earliest register 
preserved in the Church of the Holy Trinity," this 
Mary the mother gets one line : " 1608. F. 1 Sept. 
9, Mayry Shaxspere, wydowe." 

" The inventory of Robert Arden's goods, which was 
taken shortly after his death in 1556, enables us to realize 
the kind of life that was followed by the poet's mother 
during her girlhood. In the total absence of books or 
means of intellectual education, her acquirements must 
have been restricted to an experimental knowledge of 
matters connected with the farm and its house. There 

1 F. stands for funeral, or burial. 



6 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 

can be no doubt that the maiden with the pretty name, — 
she who has been so often represented as a nymph of the 
forest, communing with nothing less aesthetic than a 
nightingale or a waterfall, — spent most of her time in the 
homeliest of rustic employments ; and it is not at all 
improbable that, in common with many other farmers' 
daughters of the period, she occasionally assisted in the 
more robust occupations of the field. It is at all events 
not very Hkely that a woman unendowed with an ex- 
ceptionally healthy and vigorous frame could have been 
the parent of a Shakespeare. Of her personal character 
or social gifts nothing whatever is known, but it would 
be a grave error to assume that the rude surroundings of 
her youth were incompatible with the possession of a 
romantic temperament and the highest form of subjec- 
tive refinement. Existence, indeed, was passed in her 
father's house in some respects, we shoald now say, rather 
after the manner of pigs than that of human beings. Many 
ot the articles that are considered necessaries in the hum- 
blest of modern cottages were not to be seen ; there were 
no table-knives, no forks, no crockery. The food was 
manipulated on flat pieces of stout wood, too insignifi- 
cant in value to be catalogued, and whatever there may 
have been to supply the places of spoons or cups were no 
doubt roughly formed of the same material ; but some of 
the larger objects, such as kitchen-pans, may have been 
of pewter or latten. The means of ablution were la- 
mentably defective, if indeed they were not limited to 
what could have been supplied by an insulated pail of 
water ; for what were called towels were merely used for 
wiping the hands after a meal, and there was not a single 
wash-hand basin in the establishment. As for the in- 
mate and other labourers, it was very seldom indeed, if 
ever, that they either washed their hands or combed their 
hair ; nor is there the least reason for suspecting that 
those accomplishments were in liberal requisition in the 



JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 7 

dwellings of their employers. But surely there was 
nothing in all this to have excluded the unlettered damsel 
from a fervid taste for oral romance, — that which was 
then chiefly represented by tales of the fairies, the knights, 
or the giants ; nothing to debar the high probability of 
her recitals of them having fascinated her illustrious son 
in the days of his childhood ; nothing to disturb the 
graceful suggestion that some of his impressions of per- 
fect womanhood had their origin in his recollections of 
the faultless nature of the matron of Henley Street. The 
maiden name of Robert Arden's wife has not been dis- 
covered. " (H.-P. i. 27-29.) 

1558. Four persons named, and "John Shak- 
speyr (iiij. d), for not kepynge ther gutters cleane 
they stand amerced." His name is very often on 
the court records, gaining and losing suits. This 
is from the baptismal register: " September 15, 
Jone Shakspere, daughter to John Shaxspere." 
September 30 : " The xij, men have ordenyd ther 
trysty and wel-belovyd Humfrey Plymley, Soger 
Sadler, John Taylor, and John Shakspeyr (jur.), 
constabulles." 

1559. In the court records he appears once as 
"Shackspere." 

" John Shakspeyr was also one of the affeerors who 
were sworn into office on the same day, 6 October, at a 
meeting of the courtleet, his mark, formed something 
like a pair of compasses, appearing in the record at a 
short distance on the left of his name." (H.-P. ii. 219.) 

1560. Johannes Shakespere is in a list of jurors, 
but did not serve. 

1561. A chamberlain and an affeeror. 



8 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 

1562. Ke-elected chamberlain. "Leywys ap 
Williams, hye bayly, Kobert Perotte, capitall al- 
dermane, Jorm Tayler and Johne Shackspere, 
chamburlens." Baptismal register : " December 2, 
Margareta, filia Johannis Shakspere," 

1563. He sold the Corporation a piece of timber. 
" Item : payd to Shakspeyr for a pec tymbur, iiij. s" 
" John Shakspeyre " and u John Tayler " are still 
"chamburlens ; " neither could write. Burial reg- 
ister: "April 30. Margareta filia Johannis Shak- 
spere." At a meeting of the Town Council held 
December 20 " John Shaxspere " is noticed among 
the "burgesys beyng then present." 

1564. The chamberlains deliver their accounts 
January 10, to the new chamberlains. " At a hall 
holden the xxvj.th day of January the chambur ys 
found in arrerage and ys in det unto John Shak- 
speyr xxv. s. viij.;" a balance that was subsequently 
paid. Baptismal register : " April 26, Gulielmus, 
filius Johannes Shakspere." 

" Jhon Shacksper" gives 12d. for the " releffe of 
the poure," August 30, and 6d. September 6, " to- 
wardes the releyff of thosse that be vysytyd" by the 
plague, and 6d. on September 27, and 8d. on Oct. 20. 
He was present at a meeting of the Corporation, 
September 27, " his name occurring in a formal list 
given in the Council-book and distinguished by his 
compass-mark." Mr. Phillipps says that John 
Shakespeare was " in affluent circumstances about 
this period, and the leading director of the accounts 
that were passed on 21 March, 1565." 



JOHN SHAKESPEAKE. 9 

1565. July 4, chosen to fill a vacancy in the 
Council, and present at the meeting held on that 
day ; first among the " burgesez present/' and thfen 
of " aldermen present." " At thys hall John Shak- 
speyr ys appwntyd an alderman." September 12, 
sworn in as alderman, — " Johne Shakspeyr, jur." 

In March, 1565, John Shakespeare made up the 
accounts of the chamberlains of the borough. He 
could not write ; nearly all tradesmen then reck- 
oned with counters, and the poet's father was an 
adept in this kind of work. In September, 1567, 
he was nominated for high bailiff, an officer subse- 
quently called the mayor. He was not elected. 
The local records then for the first time call him 
" Mr. Shakspeyr." Before that he had been called 
John Shakespeare or Shakespeare. He was a rising 
man. During the boyhood of the poet "his father 
was one of the leading men in Stratford-on-Avon." 

1566. The chamberlains' accounts were placed 
under John Shakespeare's individual superintend- 
ence. " In thys accompt the chaumbur ys in det 
unto John Shakspeyr, to be payd unto hym by the 
next chamburlein, vij. s. iij. dP Baptismal Reg- 
ister : "October 13, Gilbertus, filius Johannis 
Shakspere." 

1567. "He was assessed on goods of the value 
of £4 to a subsidy that was levied in 9 Elizabeth." 
Present at meetings of the Town Council in Jan- 
uary, July, and on the 3d of September, when 
he was one of three persons " nominatyd for the 
belyf." 



10 JOHN SHAKESPEAKE. 

1568. « On the fourth of September, 1568, John Shake- 
speare, — ' Mr. John Shaky sper,' as he is called in that 
day's record, — was chosen high bailiff, attaining thus the 
most distinguished official position in the town after an 
active connection with its affairs during the preceding 
eleven years. The poet had entered his fifth year in the 
previous month of April, the family in Henley Street now 
consisting of his parents, his brother Gilbert, who was 
very nearly two years old, and himself ." (H.-P. i. 37.) 

In a note in volume ii. p. 231, Mr. Phillipps says : 

" On September 4th the Corporation ' procedyd to thel- 
lectione of theire balyf for the next yere,' and John Shake- 
speare was the one chosen of the three nominated, — ' the 
names whereof one to be balyf, Mr. John Shakysper, Mr. 
Robert Perrot, Robert Salusburye.' He presided as high 
bailiff at a meeting of the Council held on the 1st of 
October, and at the Court of Record on the 6th and 20th 
of the same month. In precepts that he issued in Decem- 
ber he is termed i justiciarius de pace ac ballivus infra 
burgum.' " 

Mr. Phillipps believes that the poet's father had 
a passion for the drama. During the year of his 
bailiffship dramatic entertainments are first heard 
of at Stratford-on-Avon ; they must have been in- 
troduced with his sanction. In 1568 or 1569 the 
Queen's and the Earl of Worcester's players gave 
representations before the Council, paid for by the 
Council, and free to the public. Other bodies of 
actors, he believes, played in the town. 

Mr. Phillipps says, "the new religious system 
[Protestantism] was now firmly established at 
Stratford." He says that although high bailiff 



JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 11 

Shakespeare took the oath of supremacy and " out- 
wardly conformed to the Protestant rule," there is 
no doubt " that he was one of the many of those 
holding a similar position in the Catholic strong- 
hold of Warwickshire who were secretly attached 
to the old religion. . . . After the great penal legis- 
lation of 1581, his name was included in more 
than one list of suspected recusants. ... In a time 
of virulent and crushing persecution he was unwill- 
ing to sacrifice the temporal interests of his wife 
and children as well as his o&n on the altar of open 
non-conformity." 

Mr. Phillipps quotes from a ballad of the time of 

James I. : — 

" There be divers Papists, 
That to save their fine 
Come to church once a moneth, 
To hear service divine.'' 

Under the statute of 23 Elizabeth a fine of twenty 
pounds was imposed upon all persons over the 
age of sixteen for every month in which there 
was an entire absence from the services of the 
Church. 

1569. On January 26, the accounts of the cham- 
berlains were taken " before Mr. John Shakyspere," 
high bailiff. On February 12 he was a witness on 
a bond and an indenture, his name appearing as 
John Shaxpere. Baptismal Register, Stratford-on- 
Avon : " April 15, Jone, the daughter of John Shak- 
spere." As high bailiff he presides at meetings of 
the Council and of the Court of Record. 

1570. The chamberlains " praye allowaunce of 



12 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 

money delivered to Mr. Shaxpere at sundrie times* 

Yj. li." 

1571. September 5, Council Book : " At a hall 
there holden the v.th day of September, Mr. John 
Shakespere was elected alderman for the yere to 
come, and ys sworne ut supra." Baptismal register : 
" September 28, Anna, filia magistri Shakspere." 

1572. He ceased to be chief alderman on the 3d 
of September. 

1573. August 28 " John Shaxbere " was a wit- 
ness to a conveyance. He was present at Council 
meetings in January and September. 

1574. Baptismal register : " March 11, Bichard, 
sonne to Mr. John Shakspere." 

1575. In October he gave £40 for two houses at 
Stratford. As an alderman he attended meetings 
of the Council. An alderman also in 1576. 

1577. At only one meeting of the Town Council 
this year is it certain that he was present. 

1578. The Town Council on January 29 made a 
levy on the people to purchase military accoutre- 
ments ; the tax on " burgese " Shakespeare is thus 
named: "Mr. Shaxpeare, iij. s. iiij. dP Among 
the debts owed to Boger Saddeler, a baker of Strat- 
ford, appended to his will, is " the debte of Mr. 
John Shaksper, v. li." This " indicates that John 
Shakespeare's circumstances were not as flourishing 
as they were in 1564." A resolution of the Coun- 
cil, passed November 19, ordered every alderman to 
pay weekly toward the relief of the poor four 
pence," saving Mr. John Shaxpeare and Mr. Bobert 



JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 13 

Bratt, who shall not be taxed to pay anythinge." 
Mr. Phillipps says : " The estate of Asbies was lost 
forever to the Shakespeares (John and Mary) 
when on November the 14th, 1578, they unfortu- 
nately passed it over to Edmund Lambert as a 
security for an advance of £40." 

1579. Money is levied, March 11, for the pur- 
chase of armor and defensive weapons ; among the 
defaulters is "Mr. Shaxpeare, iij. s. iiij. d." 
Burial register : " April 4, Anne, daughter to Mr. 
John Shakspere." 

" On October 15th John and Mary Shakespeare 
[' John Schakspere and Marye his wyeffe'] conveyed 
his interest in a Snitterfield estate to Eobert Webbe, 
the purchase money being only £4." The convey- 
ance is signed, " The marke + of John Shackspere. 
The marke + of Marye Shacksper." John Shake- 
speare absents himself from Council meetings. 

1579. " The reversion that was parted with in the year 
1579 consisted of a share in a considerable landed estate 
that had belonged to the poet's maternal grandfather, — 
a share to which John and Mary Shakespeare would have 
become absolutely entitled upon the death of Agnes 
Arden, who was described as ' aged and impotent ' in the 
July of the following year, 1580, and who died a few 
months afterwards, her burial at Aston Cantlowe having 
taken place on the 29th of December. In her will, that 
of a substantial lady farmer of the period, there is no 
direct mention of the Shakespeares.' , (H.-P. i. 61.) 

1580. Baptismal register : " May 3, Edmund, 
sonne to Mr. John Shakspere." In a book of the 
names of the gentlemen and freeholders in the 



14 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 

county of Warwick, 1580, under " Stretford-upon- 
Aven " occurs the name of "John Shaxper." He 
attended no Council meetings this year ; none in 
1581. 

1582. " Johannes Shaxper " is present only at 
the Council meeting of September 5. He is absent 
from all the meetings in 1583 and 1584. 

1585. Three suits against him in the Court of 
Record, for debt. Absent from Council. 

1586. Suits against " Johannes Shackspere," for 
debt. He serves on juries in May and July. In 
July he went over to Coventry to become one of 
the bail for the due appearance of Michael Pryce, 
indicted for felony ; is called " Johannes Shake- 
spere, de Stretford-super-Avon, in comitatu War- 
rewicensi, glover." 

" On 6 September there was an ' eleccion of newe alder- 
men/ and 'at thys halle William Smythe and Richard 
Courte are chosen to be aldermen in the places of John 
Wheler and John Shaxspere, for that Mr. Wheler dothe 
desyre to be put owt of the companye, and Mr. Shaxspere 
dothe not come to the halles when they be warned, nor 
hat he not done of longe tyme.' " (H.-P. ii. 241.) 

1587. "In the early part of this year John Shake- 
speare was tormented by an action that had been brought 
against him in the Court of Record by Mcholas Lane, 
who averred that, in a conference they had held in the 
previous June, the former had made himself responsible 
for £10 in the event, subsequently realized, of his brother 
Henry not paying that sum on Michaelmas Day, 1586, 
part of a debt of £22 that was owing to Lane. Judg- 
ment was no doubt given in favour of the plaintiff, the 
suit having been removed by certiorari at the instance of 
the defendant." (H.-P. ii. 241.) 



JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 15 

The legal papers are in Latin. The name appears 
as Shakspere, Shaksper, Shacksper, Shaxpere, 
Schackspere, Shakesper, in the different papers of 
this one year. In the Court of Record records of 
1588 and 1589 he is the plaintiff. One of his bills 
of complaint shows that he was " still engaged in 
commercial speculations." 

1590. " His estate in Henley Street described in the 
inquisition on the lands of the Earl of Warwick, 6 
October. He served on a Court of Record jury, 16 
December." (H.-P ii. 244.) 

1591. In several suits he is defendant, in several 
plaintiff. Shaxspere, Shaxsper, and Shaksper oc- 
cur in the legal papers. 

1592. John Shakespeare was appraiser of the 
estates of two deceased persons. Sir Thomas Lucy 
and other commissioners prepared lists of the re- 
cusants of Warwickshire. Among those found who 
had been " hearetofore presented," at Stratford-on- 
Avon, u for not comminge monethlie to the Churche 
according to hir Majesties lawes," were " Mr. John 
Shackspere " and eight others ; but they say of 
them : " It is sayd that these laste nine coom not 
to Churche for feare of processe for debttee." In 
the paper from which the commissioners obtained 
their information the words are: "Wee suspect 
these nyne persons next ensuinge absent them- 
selves for feare of processes." They are named, 
" Mr. John Shackspeare " among them. Then they 
were not recusants ; not persons who refused to 
conform to the established rites of the Church; 
debtors, not papists. 



16 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 

1593. Two suits against " Johannes Shaxpere," 
for debt. "Johannes Shaxpere nichill dicit ad 
accionem Eicardi Tyler in placito debiti." He says 
nothing. The " Venus and Adonis " is published 
this year. 

1595. A suit for debt against " Johannes Shax- 
pere," — "his last appearance in the register of the 
Court of Record." 

1596. " There is preserved at the College of Arms the 
draft of a grant of coat-armour to John Shakespeare, 
dated in October, 1596, the result of an application made 
no doubt some little time previously. It may be safely 
inferred, from the unprosperous circumstances of the 
grantee, that this attempt to confer gentility on the 
family was made at the poet's expense. This is the first 
evidence that we have of his rising pecuniary fortunes, 
and of his determination to advance in social position." 
(H.-P. i. 130.) 

The following is copied from the draft of a grant 
of " Coat Armour " proposed to be conferred on the 
poet's father : — 

" Being therefore solicited, and . . . credible report in- 
formed that John Shakespeare, of Stratf ord-uppon-Avon, 
in the counte of Warwick, whose parentes and late ante- 
cessors were for theyre vale ant and faithefull service ad- 
vaunced and rewarded by the most prudent prince King 
Henry the Seventh of famous memorie, sythence whiche 
tyme they have contiweed at those partes in good repu- 
tacion and credit ; and that the said John having maryed 
Mary, daughter and one of the heyres of Robert Arden 
of Wilmcote, in the said counte, gent, — in consideration 
whereof, and for encouragement of his posterite, to whom 
theyse achiwmentes maie desend by the auncient custom 



JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 17 

and lawes of armes, I have therfore assigned, graunted, 
and by these presentes confirmed, this shield or cote of 
armes ; viz., Gould on a bend sable a speare of the first, 
the poynt steeled, proper, and for his creast or cognizance 
a faulcon, his winges displayed, argent, standing on a 
wrethe of coullors, supporting a speare gould steled as 
aforesaid, sett uppon a healmett with mantelles and tas- 
selles as hathe ben accustomed and more playnely appear- 
ethe depicted on this margent. Signefieng hereby that 
it shal be lawfull for the sayd John Shakespeare gent, 
and for his children, yssue and posterite, at all tymes 
convenient, to make shewe of and to beare the same 
blazon atchevement on theyre shield or escucheons, cote 
of arms, creast, cognizance or seales, ringes, signettes, 
penons, guydons, edefices, utensiles, lyveries, tombes or 
monumentes, or otherwyse, at all tymes in all lawfull 
warrlyke factes or civile use and exercises, according to 
the lawes of armes, without lett or interruption of any 
other person or persons." (H.-P. ii. 56.) 

It is to be observed that the name is " Shake- 
speare/' In the draft for the same purpose, made 
in 1599, the name is " Shakespere." 

1597. He sells a narrow strip of land on the 
west of his Henley Street freeholds for £2. 10s., 
and about this time a fragment of ground at the 
back of the wool-shop. On the 24th of November, 
" John Shakespere of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the 
county of Warwicke, and Mary his wief," brought 
a suit against John Lambert (the poet's maternal 
uncle) respecting the estate of Asbies at Wilmecote. 

1598. A return was made of the holders of corn 
in Stratford. " The name of John Shakespeare 
does not occur in the list that was taken for the 

2 



18 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 

Henley Street ward. His son, however, had at this 
time accumulated ten quarters at New Place. " 
In the case of " John Shackspere and Mary his 
wief plaintiffes, John Lamberte defendant/' a 
commission is awarded to examine witnesses. 

Mr. Phillipps says that in the replication and in 
the bill of 1597 the assertion is made — 

" That the poet's father travelled on that Michaelmas- 
day to the mortgagee's residence at Barton-on-the-Heath, 
a retired village on the southern borders of Warwick- 
shire, ' and then and there tendered to paie unto him the 
said Edmunde Lambert the said fortie poundes, which 
he was to paie for the redempcion of the said premisses ; 
which somme the said Edmunde did refuse to receyve, 
sayinge that he owed him other money, and unles that 
he, the said John, would pale him altogether, as well the 
said fortie poundes as the other money which he owed 
him over and above, he would not receave the said fortie 
poundes.' So absolute was the law of forfeiture on such 
occasions that the Shakespeares would hardly have ven- 
tured upon an expensive litigation had they not felt that 
there were reasonable grounds for the course they adopted; 
the probability being that Edmund Lambert, at the above- 
mentioned interview, had verbally guaranteed the sur- 
render of the estate at any time at which his conditions 
were fulfilled. This would explain the absence of litiga- 
tion during the life-time of the original mortgagee, and, 
after the failure of the negotiations with his successor, 
want of means no doubt hindered further action until the 
subject was revived under the poet's sanction and influ- 
ence in 1597." (H.-P. ii. 203.) 

1599. The case of " John Shakespeare plaintiff, 
John Lambard defendant ; " order entered May 18. 
In the order of June 27 the name is " John Shack- 



JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 19 

speere ; " of October 23, " John Shakespere ; " and in 
a duplicate of the last entry the name appears as 
" Shakesbere." 

" Towards the close of the year 1599 a renewed attempt 
was made by the poet to obtain a grant of coat-armour 
to his father. It was now proposed to impale the arms 
of Shakespeare with those of Arden, and on each occasion 
ridiculous statements were made respecting the claims 
of the two families. Both were really descended from 
obscure English country yeomen, but the heralds made 
out that the predecessors of John Shakespeare were re- 
warded by the Crown for distinguished services, and 
that his wife's ancestors were entitled to armorial bear- 
ings. Although the poet's relatives at a later date assumed 
his right to the coat suggested for his father in 1596, it 
does not appear that either of the proposed grants was 
ratified by the college, and certainly nothing more is heard 
of the Arden impalement." (H-P. i. 178.) 

1601. "In the early part of this year an action was 
brought by Sir Edward Greville against the Corporation 
respecting the toll-corn ; and John Shakespeare assisted, 
in company with four other persons, including Adrian 
Quiney, in the preparation of suggestions for the use of 
counsel for the defendants. This is the latest contempo- 
rary notice of the worthy old glover that has yet been dis- 
covered, and it is an interesting evidence that longevity 
had neither extinguished his capacity for business nor 
its appreciation by his fellow-citizens. The suggestions 
above mentioned are without a date, but they were cer- 
tainly written before September, the funeral of Mr. Jo- 
hannes Shakspeare having taken place upon the eighth 
of that month. And here terminates the fragmentary 
history of the poet's father. No record of the site of his 
grave has been discovered, and all traces of a sepulchral 
memorial, if one were ever to be seen either within or with- 
out the church, have long disappeared." (H.-P. ii. 248.) 



20 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 

The following is copied from the Stratford church 
register: "1601. P. Septemb. 8, ]\Ir. Johannes 

Shakspeare." 

"The poet's father. — Mr. Johannes Shakspeare, as he 

is called in the register, — was buried at Stratford-on- 
Avon on September 8, 1601, having no doubt expired 
a few days previously at his residence in Henley Street, 
which is noticed so recently as 1597 as being then in his 
occupation. He is mentioned as having been concerned 
with others in the former year in the discussion of 
matters respecting an action brought by Sir Edward 
Greville against the town ; so there are no reasons for be- 
lieving that his latest years were accompanied by decrepi- 
tude. In all probability the old man died intestate ; and 
the great dramatist appears to have succeeded, as his eldest 
son and heir-at-law, to the ownership of the freehold ten- 
ements in Henley Street. It is not likely that the widow 
acquired more than her right to dower in that property, 
but there can be no hesitation in assuming that such a 
claim would have been merged in a liberal allowance 
from her son." (H.-P. i. 199.) 

Mr. Phillipps speaks of the "'modern fabrication."' 
the long confession of faith of " John Shakspear, 
an unworthy member of the Holy Catholick re- 
ligion.*' It was first noticed in an unpublished 
letter from Jordan to the editor of the Gentleman's 
Magazine, dated at Stratford-on-Avon, June 14, 
1781. Malone was at first deceived by the " con- 
fession." but afterward admitted his error. ]\Ir. 
Phillipps believes that " Jordan himself was the 
forger of the document." 



WILLIAM SHAKE SPEAEE. 

1564. 



THE LINEAGE OF WILLIAM* SHAKESPEARE 
UNTIL ITS EXTINCTION IN 1670. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. = Anne Hathaway. Born 1555 



Born 1564. 
Died 1616. 



Married 1582. 



or 1556. 
1623. 



Married 1582. Died 



Susanna. Born 1583. 
1607. Died 1649. 



Married = John Hall, eminent 

physician. Born 1574 
or 1575. Married 1607. 
Died 1635. 



Elizabeth. Born 1608. = Thomas Nash, first husband. 



Married 1626 and 1649 
Died 1670, s. p. 



Born 1593. Married 1626. 
Died 1647. John Barnard, 
second husband. Born 1604. 
Married 1649. Knighted 1661. 
Died 1674. 



Hamnet, a twin with 
Judith. Born 1585. 
Died 1596. 



Judith, a twin with = Thomas Quiney, wine- 



Hamnet. Born 
1585. Married 
1616. Died 1662. 



merchant. Born 1589. 
Married 1616. Living 
in 1655, but exact period 
of death unknown. 



I 

Shakespeare. 

Born 1616. 

Died 1617. 



Richard. 

Born 1618. 
Died 1639. 



Thomas. 
Born 1620. 
Died 1639. 



22 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

1564. The record of the baptism is given in the 
register preserved in the Church of the Holy 
Trinity at Stratford: "1564. b. April 26, Guliel- 
mus, filius Johannes Shakspere." 

" In Henley Street, in what was for those days an un- 
usually large and commodious residence for a provincial 
tradesman, and upon or almost immediately before the 
twenty-second day of April, 1564, but most probably on 
that Saturday, the eldest son of John and Mary Shake- 
speare, he who was afterwards to be the national poet of 
England, was born. An apartment on the first floor of that 
house is shown to this day, through unvarying tradition, 
as the birth-room of the great dramatist, who w 7 as bap- 
tized on the following Wednesday, April the twenty-sixth, 
receiving the Christian name of William. He was then, 
and continued to be for more than two years, an only child, 
— two girls, daughters of the same parents, who were born 
previously, having died in their infancy. De Quincey was 
the first to conjecture that the 22d of April, corresponding 
to our present 4th of May, is the real birthday. The sug- 
gestion was derived from the circumstance of the poet's 
only grandchild having been married to Thomas Xash on 
the 22d of April, 1626 ; and few things are more likely than 
the selection of her grandfather's birthday for such a 
celebration. Only ten years had elapsed since his death, 
and that he had been kind to her in her childhood may 
be safely inferred from the remembrances in the will. 
Whatever opinion may be formed respecting the precise 
interpretation of the record of the age under the monu- 
mental efligy, the latter is a certain evidence that Shake- 
speare was not born after the 23d of April. It may also 
be fairly assumed that the event could not have happened 
many days previously, for it was the almost universal 
practice amongst the middle classes of that time to 
baptize children very shortly after birth. The notion 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 23 

that Shakespeare died on his birthday was not circulated 
until the middle of the last century, and it is completely 
devoid of substantial foundation. Had so unusual a 
circumstance occurred, it is all but impossible that it 
should not have been numbered amongst the early tradi- 
tions of Stratford-on-Avon, and there is good evidence 
that no such incident was known in that town at the close 
of the seventeenth century." (H.-P. ii. 332.) 

"There is no doubt that Stratford-on-Avon was con- 
sidered, from very early Shakespearean times, to have 
derived its celebrity from its having been the birth-town 
of the great dramatist. ' One travelling through Strat- 
ford-upon-Avon, a towne most remarkeable for the birth 
of famous William Shakespeare ' (A banquet of Jests, or 
Change ofCheare, 1639). 'William Shakespear, the glory 
of the English stage, whose nativity at Stratford-upon- 
Avon is the highest honour that town can boast of ' ( Thea- 
trum Poetarum, 1675). ' I say not this to derogate from 
those excellent persons, but to perswade them, as Homer 
and our Shakespear did, to immortalize the places where 
they were born' (Dedication to Virtue Betrayed, 1682). 
Throughout the seventeenth century, however, the grave- 
stone and effigy appear to have been the only memorials 
of the poet that were indicated to visitors ; and no 
evidence has been discovered which represents either the 
birth-place or the birth-room as an object of commercial 
exhibition until after the traditions respecting them are 
known to have been current. There is not a word about 
the two latter in Richardson's popular edition of 
1 De Foe's Tour,' 1769, nor in any of the earlier guide- 
books or itineraries, although several of those works 
notice other matters of Shakespearean interest. There 
is, indeed, little doubt that the birth-place did not become 
one of the incentives for pilgrimage until public attention 
had been specially directed to it at the time of the 
Jubilee, while it was not then generally known that the 



24 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 

birth-room could be identified. A correspondent of the 
Gentleman's Magazine, writing from Lichfield in July, 
1769, observes : ' I do not know whether the apartment 
where the incomparable Shakespeare first drew his breath 
can at this day be ascertained or not ; but the house of 
his nativity, according to undoubted tradition, is now 
remaining.' " (H.-P. i. 386.) 

" Upon the north side of Henley Street is a detached 
building, consisting of two houses annexed each other, — 
the one on the west having been known from time 
immemorial as Shakespeare's birth-place; and that on 
the east, a somewhat larger one, which was purchased by 
his father in the year 1556. It may fairly be assumed 
that in the latter the then < considerable dealer in wool ' 
deposited no trifling portion of his stock." (H.-P. i. 377.) 

" The two buildings are collectively mentioned as the 
1 house where Shakespeare was born ' in Winter's plan of 
the town, 1759, — the attribution being therein casually 
noticed amongst other well-known established facts ; and 
in Greene's view, which was engraved in 1769, they are 
described together as a ' house in Stratford-upon-Avon in 
which the famous poet Shakespear was born.' This view 
was published in anticipation of Garrick's Jubilee, and 
identified the building with the one named in the 
accounts of that celebration; but up to this period no 
intimation is anywhere given as to which of the then two 
houses was considered to be the birth-place. The latter 
deficiency is fortunately supplied by Boswell, who was pre- 
sent at the Jubilee, and informs us that amongst the embel- 
lishments displayed on that occasion i was a piece of paint- 
ing hung before the windows of the room where Shake- 
speare was born, representing the sun breaking through 
the clouds' (London Magazine, September, 1769, p. 453). 
It is true that the locality of the room is not particularized, 
but it would be the merest foppery of scepticism to 
doubt that it is the apartment which is now exhibited as 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 25 

the birth-room ; and, indeed, the testimony of my late 
friend R. B. Wheler, whose father was at the Jubilee, and 
who had perfect knowledge of the local reports of that 
commemoration, should in itself exclude a misgiving oft 
the subject. i The stranger is shewn a room over the 
butcher's shop, in which our bard is said to have been 
born ; and the numberless visitors, who have literally 
covered the walls of this chamber with names and other 
memorials, sufficiently evince the increasing resort to this 
hallowed roof 9 (Wheler's Guide to Stratford-upon-Avon, 
1814, p. 12). There can, therefore, be no doubt that 
from the earliest period at which we have, or were likely 
to have, a record of the fact, it was the tradition of Strat- 
ford that the birth-place is correctly so designated." 
(H.-P. i. 385.) 

" The house in which Shakespeare was born must have 
been erected in the first half of the sixteenth century, but 
the alterations that it has since undergone have effaced 
much of it's original character. Inhabited at various 
periods by tradesmen of different occupations, it could not 
possibly have endured through the long course of upward 
of three centuries without having been subjected to 
numerous repairs and modifications. The general form 
and arrangement of the tenement that was purchased in 
1556 may yet, however, be distinctly traced ; and many 
of the old timbers, as well as pieces of the ancient rough 
stone-work, still remain. There are also portions of the 
chimneys, the fireplace surroundings, and the stone base- 
ment-floor, that have been untouched ; but most, if not 
all, of the lighter wood-work belongs to a more recent 
period. It may be confidently asserted that there is only 
one room in the entire building which has not been 
greatly changed since the days of the poet's boyhood. 
This is the antique cellar under the sitting-room, from 
which it is approached by a diminutive flight of steps. 
It is a very small apartment, measuring only nine by ten 



26 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

feet ; but near ' that small most greatly liv'd this star of 
England.' " (H.-P. i. 31.) 

1568. "Both parents of the poet were absolutely 
illiterate, but the son was taught to read and write, his 
education probably beginning at this time. The Queen's 
and the Earl of Worcester's players visited Stratford and 
played before the Council during this year or the next. 
The first performances were paid for by the Council, and 
were free to the public. The boy may then have first 
seen a play. A man named Willis, in his old age, 
described a play he saw in his boyhood, in Gloucester, at 
this time. ' My father tooke me with him, and made mee 
stand betweene his leggs as he sate upon one of the 
benches, where wee saw and heard very well. The play was 
called the " Cradle of Security," wherein was personated 
a king or some great prince, with his courtiers of severall 
kinds, amongst which three ladies were in speciall grace 
with him ; and they, keeping him in delights and plea- 
sures, drew him from his graver counsellors, hearing of 
sermons and listening to good counsel and admonitions, 
that in the end they got him to lye down in a cradle upon 
the stage, where these three ladies, joyning in a sweet 
song, rocked him asleepe that he snorted againe ; and in 
the meane time closely conveyed under the cloaths where- 
withal! he was covered a vizard, like a swine's snout, upon 
his face, with three wire chaines fastened thereunto, the 
other end whereof being holden severally by those three 
ladies who fall to singing againe, and then discovered his 
face that the spectators might see how they had trans- 
formed him, going on with their singing. Whilst all this 
was acting, there came forth of another doore at the 
farthest end of the stage two old men, the one in blew 
with a serjeant-at-armes his mace on his shoulder, the 
other in red with a drawn sword in his hand and leaning 
with the other hand upon the others shoulder ; and so 
they two went along in a soft pace round about by the 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 27 

skirt of the stage, till at last they came to the cradle, 
when all the court was in greatest jollity; and then the 
foremost old man with his mace stroke a fearfull blow 
upon the cradle, whereat all the courtiers, with the three 
ladies and the vizard, all vanished ; and the desolate 
prince starting up bare-faced, and finding himselfe thus 
sent for to judgement, made a lamentable complaint of his 
miserable case, and so was carried away by wicked spirits. 
This prince did personate in the morrall the Wicked of 
the World ; the three ladies, Pride, Covetousnesse, and 
Luxury ; the two old men, the End of the World and the 
Last Judgment. This sight tooke such impression in me 
that, when I came towards mans estate, it was as fresh 
in my memory as if I had seen it newly acted.' " (H.-P. 
i. 41.) 

These plays were an advance upon the religious 
plays known as Mysteries, which still held the 
stage. The following items from old records relate 
to stage properties used in the Mysteries : — 

" The Smiths' Company in 1440 paid three shillings 
and sixpence halfpenny for ' cloth to lap abowt the 
pajent.' On another occasion sixpence was invested in 
' half e a yard of Rede Sea.' (Smiths' Accounts, 1569, 
Coventry, MS.) 

" * The little children were never so afrayd of hell- 
mouth in the old plaies painted with great gang teeth, 
staring eyes and a foule bottle nose.' (Harsnet's Declara- 
tion, 1603.) 

" It may be observed that hell-mouth was one of the 
few contrivances in use in the ancient mysteries which 
were retained on the metropolitan stage in the time of 
Shakespeare, it being in the list of properties belonging to 
the Lord Admiral's Servants in 1599. Noah's Ark must 
have been a magnificent example of this class of pro- 



28 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

perties, as may be gathered from the following stage- 
direction in the Chester mystery of the flood. * Then 
Noy shall goe into the arke with all his famylye, his 
wife excepte ; the arke mnst be borded ronnde abont, and 
npon the bordes all the beastes and fowles hereafter re- 
hearsed, mnst be painted, that there wordes maye agree 
with the pictures.' (MS. Harl.) 

" ' Adam and Eve aparlet in whytt lether,' stage-direc- 
tion in the old Cornish mystery of the Creation of the 
World. ' Two cotes and a payre hosen for Eve stayned ; 
a cote and hosen for Adam steyned.' (Inventory of Pageant 
Costumes, 1565.) 

" ' Item, to a peyntonr for peyntyng the fauchon and 
Herodes face, x. d." (Accounts of the Smiths' Company, 
1477.) 

" ' Item, paid for a go wen to Arrode, vij. s. iiij. d. ; item, 
paid for peynttyng and stenyng thereoff, vj. s. iiij. d. ; 
item, paid for Arrodes garment peynttyng that he went 
a prossassyon in, xx. d. ; item, paid for mendyng off 
Arrodes gauen to a taillour viij. d. ; item, paid for mend- 
yng off hattes, cappas and Arreddes creste, with other 
smale geyr belongyng, iij. s.' (Accounts of the Smiths' 
Company, 1490.) 

" ' Item, paid for gloves to the pleyares, xix. d. ; item, 
paid for pyntyng off ther fasus, ij. d.' (Accounts of the 
Smiths' Company, 1502.) 

" ' The Black or Damned Souls had their faces 
blackened, and were dressed in coats and hose ; the 
fabric of the hose was buckram or canvas, of which 
latter material nineteen ells were used, — nine of yellow 
and ten of black, — in 1556 ; and probably a sort of party- 
coloured dress was made for them, where the yellow was 
so combined as to represent flames/ (Sharp's Dissertation 
on the Coventry Mysteries.) 

" In 1556 there is an entry of a payment which was 
made < for blakyng the sollys fassys.' " (H.-P, ii. 289, 290.) 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 29 

There is no reasonable doubt that the poet in his 
youth saw some of these Mysteries. They had 
been seen by many generations in England, and did 
not become obsolete until about the year 1580. 

" The Rev. John Shaw, who was the temporary chaplain 
in a village in Lancashire in 1644, narrates the following 
curious anecdote respecting one of its inhabitants : * One 
day an old man about sixty, sensible enough in other 
things, and living in the parish of Cartmel, coming to me 
about other business, I told him that he belonged to my 
care and charge, and I desired to be informed in his 
knowledge of religion. I asked him how many Gods there 
were ; he said he knew not. I, informing him, asked him 
again how he thought to be saved ; he answered he could 
not tell, yet thought that was a harder question than the 
other. I told him that the way to salvation was by Jesus 
Christ, God-man, who, as He was man, shed His blood 
for us on the crosse, &c. " Oh, sir," said he, " I think I 
heard of that man you speak of once in a play at Kendall, 
called Corpus Christi Play, where there was a man on a 
tree, and blood ran downe," &c. ; and after he professed 
that he could not remember that ever he heard of salva- 
tion by Jesus Christ but in that play.' " (H.-P. i. 49.) 

" The allegorical was the first deviation from the purely 
religious drama. The introduction of secular plays quickly 
followed; after which, from the close of the fifteenth 
century to the time of Shakespeare, there was a succession 
of interludes and other theatrical pieces in great variety, 
in many of which some of the characters were abstract 
personifications similar to those introduced into the 
moral-plays. The most ancient English secular drama 
which is known to exist was written about the year 1490, 
by the Rev. Henry Medwall, chaplain to Morton, Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, and afterwards printed by Rastell 
under the title of ' A Godely Interlude of Fulgeus, Cena- 



30 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

toure of Rome, Lucres his doughter, Gayus Flaminius 
and Publius Cornelius, of the Disputacyon of Xoblenes.' 
. . . His works, although rather dull even for his age, 
are superior both in construction and versification to those 
of his predecessors ; and he may almost be said to be the 
founder of our famous national drama, that which 
lingered for generations after him in painful mediocrity, 
until a little fervour and more poetic beauty were communi- 
cated to it by a small band of writers who were bestowing 
a literary character on the stage at the time of the poet's 
arrival in London. It was very shortly afterwards, and 
in the midst of this advance, that the English drama rose 
by a spirited bound to be first really worthy the name of 
art in the hands of Marlowe." (H.-P. ii. 310, 341.) 

A play like the " Cradle of Security " was called 
a Moral, or a Moral-Play ; and they were performed 
in Shakespeare's day. 

1571. " Although there is no certain information on 
the subject, it may perhaps be assumed that at this time 
boys usually entered the Free School at the age of seven, 
according to the custom followed at a later period. If so, 
the poet commenced his studies there in the spring of the 
year 1571 ; and unless its system of instruction differed 
essentially from that pursued in other establishments of a 
similar character, his earliest knowledge of Latin was 
derived from two well-known books of the time, — the 
' Accidence ' and the ' Sententiae Pueriles.' From the 
first of these works the improvised examination of Master 
Page in the ' Merry Wives of Windsor ' is so almost 
verbally remembered, that one might imagine that the 
William of the scene was a resuscitation of the poet at 
school. Recollections of the same book are to be traced 
in other of his plays. The ' Sentential Pueriles ' was, in 
all probability, the little manual by the aid of which he 
first learned to construe Latin ; for in one place, at least, 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 31 

he all but literally translates a brief passage, and there 
are in his plays several adaptations of its sentiments. It 
was then sold for a penny, equivalent to our present 
shilling, and contains a large collection of brief sentences 
collected from a variety of authors, with a distinct selec- 
tion of moral and religious paragraphs, the latter intended 
for the use of boys on Saints' Days. The best authorities 
unite in telling us that the poet imbibed a certain amount 
of Latin at school, but that his acquaintance with that 
language was throughout his life of a very limited char- 
acter. It is not probable that scholastic learning was ever 
congenial to his tastes, and it should be recollected that 
books in most parts of the country were then of very rare 
occurrence. Lilly's Grammar and a few classical works, 
chained to the desks of the Free School, were probably 
the only volumes of the kind to be found at Stratford-on. 
Avon. Exclusive of Bibles, Church Services, Psalters, 
and education manuals, there were certainly not more 
than two or three dozen books, if so many, in the whole 
town. The copy of the black-letter English history, so 
often depicted as well thumbed by Shakespeare in his 
father's parlour, never existed out of the imagination." 
(H.-P. i. 53, 55.) 

Nearly every one of the boy's connections was a 
farmer. 

1574. "On March the 11th, 1574, < Richard, sonne to 
Mr. John Shakspeer,' was baptized at Stratford, the 
Christian name of the infant having probably been 
adopted in recollection of his grandfather of Snitterfield, 
who had been removed by the hand of death some years 
previously. Independently of this new baby, there were 
now four other children, — Anne, who was in her third, 
Joan in her fifth, Gilbert in his eighth, and the poet in 
his tenth year. The father's circumstances were not yet 
on the wane, so there is every reason for believing that 



32 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

the eldest son, blessed with, as it has been well termed, the 
precious gift of sisters to a loving boy, returned to a 
happy fireside after he had been tormented by the dis- 
ciplinarian routine that was destined to terminate in the 
acquisition of ' small Latin and less Greek/ The defec- 
tive classical education of the poet is not, however, to be 
attributed to the conductors of the local seminary; for 
enough of Latin was taught to enable the more advanced 
pupils to display familiar correspondence in that lan- 
guage. It was really owing to his being removed from 
school long before the usual age, his father requiring his 
assistance in one of the branches of the Henley Street 
business. Eowe's words, published in 1709, are these : 
* He had bred him, 't is true, for some time at a free 
school, where 't is probable he acquired that little Latin 
he was master of ; but the narrowness of his circum- 
stances and the want of his assistance at home forc'd his 
father to withdraw him from thence, and unhappily 
prevented his further proficiency in that language.' " 
(H.-P. i. 56.) 

1575. " In the summer of 1575 Queen Elizabeth made 
her famous visit to Kenilworth, and was entertained by 
Leicester with splendid and varied ceremonies and 
spectacles. From Stratford it is only a few hours' walk 
to Kenilworth ; Shakspere's father might ride across with 
the boy before him. And a celebrated passage in <A 
Midsummer Night's Dream ' (act ii. sc. i. 1. 148-168), 
where Oberon describes to Puck some marvels he had 
seen, so accurately depicts some of the Kenilworth shows 
on this occasion that we can well believe that Shakspere 
here does not invent, but rather recalls what his eyes had 
actually looked on. . . . The praise of ' single blessedness ' 
(act i. sc. i. 1. 74-78) may have been designed to please 
the ears of the maiden queen ; and Oberon's vision (act 
ii. sc. i. 1. 148-168) contains a splendid piece of poetical 
homage to her. The < fair vestal throned by the west,' is 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 33 

certainly Elizabeth. It was supposed by Warburton that 
by ' the mermaid on the dolphin's back ' was meant Mary 
Queen of Scots (the dauphin's wife) ; and by the ' stars,' 
the English nobles who fell in her quarrel. It has been 
shown, however, that a mermaid on a dolphin's back, and 
shooting fires, actually formed part of the Kenilworth 
festivities with which Leicester entertained Elizabeth 
when aiming at his mistress's hand, and which Shak- 
spere as a boy may have witnessed. Elizabeth escaped 
heart-whole ; but Lettice, wife of the Earl of Essex, was 
at that time falsely loved by Leicester, and she it has 
been suggested (perhaps over-ingeniously) may be ' the 
little western flower.' " (Edward Dowden : Shakspere 
Primer.) 

1576. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says that 
when theatres were established, the Lord Mayor 
took care that they should not be built wdthin the 
City. The " Theatre " and the " Curtain " were sit- 
uated at Shoreditch ; the " Globe," the " Bose," and 
the " Hope " on the Bankside ; and the Blackfriars 
Theatre, although within the walls, was without 
the City jurisdiction. 

" It was at this period that ' James Burbage of London, 
joyner,' obtained from Giles Allen a lease for twenty-one 
years, dated 13th April, 1576, of houses and land situated 
between Finsbury Field and the public road from Bishops- 
gate to Shoreditch Church. The boundary of the leased 
estate on the west is described as ' a bricke wall next unto 
the feildes commonly called Finsbury Feildes.' James Bur- 
bage, by early trade a joiner, but at this time also a lead- 
ing member of the Earl of Leicester's company of players, 
was the originator of theatrical buildings in England, for 
the successful promotion of which his earlier as well 
as his adopted profession were exactly suited. ... It was 

3 



34 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

the earliest fabric of the kind ever built in this country, 
emphatically designated ' The Theatre,' and by the 
summer of the following year it was a recognized centre 
of theatrical amusements." (H.-P. i, 346.) 

Stow, in his " Survey of London," 1598, says 
that " the Church being pulled downe, many houses 
have bene their builded for the lodgings of noble- 
men, of straungers borne and other; and neare 
thereunto are builded two publique houses for the 
acting and shewe of comedies, tragedies, and 
histories, for recreation, whereof the one is called 
the ' Courtein,' the other the ' Theatre/ both stand- 
ing on the southwest side towards the Field," — 
that is, Finsbury Field. In December, 1598, or in 
January, 1599, the Theatre building was torn down, 
and the " w r ood and timber " removed to Southwark 
and used in the building of the Globe, by Cuthbert 
Burbage. 

" Shakespeare's association with the Curtain probably 
terminated at the opening of the Globe, and certainly did 
not continue after the decease of Elizabeth. . . . The 
Puritanical writers of the time of Shakespeare were 
indignant at the erection of regular theatrical establish- 
ments, and the Theatre and Curtain were the special 
objects of their invective." (H.-P. i. 368.) 

1577. "John Shakespeare's circumstances had begun 
to decline in the year 1577, and in all probability he 
removed the future dramatist from school when the latter 
was about thirteen, allowing Gilbert, then between ten 
and eleven, to continue his studies. The selection of the 
former for home-work may have partially arisen from his 
having been the elder and the stronger; but it also 
exhibits the father's presentiment of those talents for 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 35 

business which distinguished the latter part of his son's 
career. 

" The conflict of evidences now becomes so exceedingly 
perplexing that it is hardly possible to completely re- 
concile them. All that can prudently be said is that the 
inclination of the testimonies leans towards the belief 
that John Shakespeare, following the ordinary usage of 
the tradesmen of the locality in binding their children to 
special occupations, eventually apprenticed his eldest son 
to a butcher. That appellation was sometimes given to 
persons who, without keeping meat-shops, killed cattle 
and pigs for others ; and.as there is no telling how many 
adjuncts the worthy glover had to his legitimate business, 
it is very possible that the lad may have served his articles 
under his own father. With respect to the unpoetical 
selection of a trade for the great dramatist, it is of course 
necessary for the biographer to draw attention to the fact 
that he was no ordinary executioner, but, to use the words 
of Aubrey. i when he killed a calf, he would do it in a high 
style and make a speech. ' It may be doubted if even 
this palliative will suffice to reconcile the employment 
with our present ideal of the gentle Shakespeare ,; but he 
was not one of the few destined, at all events in early life, 
to be exempt from the laws which so frequently ordain 
mortals to be the reluctant victims of circumstances. 

" The tradition reported by the parish clerk in 1693 is 
the only known evidence of Shakespeare having been an 
apprentice, but his assertion that the poet commenced his 
practical life as a butcher is supported by the earlier 
testimony of Aubrey. If the clerk's story be rejected, we 
must then rely on the account furnished by Betterton, 
who informs us, through Howe, that John Shakespeare 
' was a considerable dealer in wool ; ' and that the great 
dramatist, after leaving school, was brought up to follow 
the same occupation, continuing in the business until his 
departure from Warwickshire. Whichever version be 



36 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

thought the more probable, the student will do well, 
before arriving at a decision, to bear in mind that many 
butchers of those days were partially farmers, and that 
those of Stratf ord-on-Avon largely represented the wealth 
and commercial intelligence of the town. Among the 
latter was Ralph Cawdrey, who had then twice served the 
office of high bailiff, and had been for many years a col- 
league of the poet's father. Nor were the accessories of 
the trade viewed in the repulsive light that some of them 
are at the present time. The refined and lively Rosalind 
w T ould have been somewhat astonished if she had been 
told of the day when her allusion to the washing of a 
sheep's heart would have been pronounced indecorous and 
more than unladylike." (H.-P. i. 57, 58.) 

Shakespeare's occupations from his fourteenth 
to his seventeenth year (from 1577 to 1582) are 
unknown, but he probably led an outdoor life. He 
" had the opportunity of witnessing theatrical 
performances by some of the leading companies 
of the day." 

1578. In the autumn of 1578, his father mort- 
gaged the estate of Asbies for £40 (a large sum), 
to Edmund Lambert. 

1579. Death of his sister Anne, in her eighth 
year. Mr. Phillipps says that " at this period the 
funereal charges at Stratford included four-pence 
for ringing the bell, and the like sum for the use of 
the pall. The latter article was very frequently 
dispensed with, but both were ordered upon this 
occasion, — ' item, for the bell and pall for Mr. 
Shaxpers dawghter, viij. dJ" Mr. George Twed- 
dell, in his " Life of Shakespeare," says that Sir 
Thomas North now publishes his translation of 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 37 

Plutarch's " Lives/' from which source Shakespeare 
derived, in after years, the plots of his Eomari 
historical' plays, "Julius Caesar/' "Antony and 
Cleopatra," and " Coriolanus." 

1580. The poet's brother Edmund, the last child 
of his parents, was christened May 3, 1580. There 
were probably nine children in the family, and not 
ten, as stated by Eowe. In the autumn the father 
tenders to Edmund Lambert the payment of the 
mortgage, but he refuses the money until other 
debts are also paid. Agnes Arden, widow of 
Kobert Arden, is buried at Aston Cantlowe, 
December 29. Montaigne's Essays are now 
published. 

1582. " It was the usual custom at Stratford-on-Avon 
for apprentices to be bound either for seven or ten years ; 
so that if Shakespeare were one of them, it is not likely 
that he was out of his articles at the time of his marriage, 
— an event that took place in 1582, when he was only in 
his nineteenth year. At that period, before a license for 
wedlock could be obtained, it was necessary to lodge at 
the Consistory Court a bond entered into by two respon- 
sible sureties, who by that document certified, under a 
heavy penalty in case of misrepresentation, that there was 
no impediment of pre-contract or consanguinity, the 
former of course alluding to a pre-contract of either of 
the affianced parties with a third person. 

" The bond given in anticipation of the marriage of 
William Shakespeare with Anne Hathaway, a proof in 
itself that there was no clandestine intention in the 
arrangements, is dated the 28th of November, 1582. 
Their first child, Susanna, was baptized on Sunday, May 
the 26th, 1583. With those numerous moralists who do 



38 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

not consider it necessary for rigid inquiry to precede con- 
demnation, these facts taint the husband with dishonour, 
— although, even according to modern notions, that very 
marriage may have been induced on his part by a senti- 
ment in itself the very essence of honour. If we assume, 
however, as we reasonably may, that cohabitation had 
previously taken place, no question of morals would in 
those days have arisen, or could have been entertained. 
The pre-contract, which was usually celebrated two or three 
months before marriage, was not only legally recognized, 
but it invalidated a subsequent union of either of the parties 
with any one else. There was a statute, indeed, of 32 
Henry VIII. (1540, c. 38, s. 2), by which certain marriages 
were legalized notwithstanding pre-contracts; but the 
clause was repealed by the Act of 2 & 3 Edward VI. 
(1518, c. 23, s. 2), and the whole statute by 1 & 2 Phil, 
and Mar. (1554, c. 8, s. 19), while the Act of 1 Elizabeth 
(1558, c. 1, s. 11), expressly confirms the revocation made 
by Edward the Sixth. The ascertained facts respecting 
Shakespeare's marriage clearly indicate the high prob- 
ability of there having been a pre-contract, — a ceremony 
which substantially had the validity of the more formal 
one, — and the improbability of that marriage having 
been celebrated under mysterious or unusual circum- 
stances. Whether the early alliance was a prudent one 
in a worldly point of view may admit of doubt ; but that 
the wedded pair continued on affectionate terms, until 
they were separated by the poet's death, may be gathered 
from the early local tradition that his wife ' did earnestly 
desire to be laid in the same grave with him.' The legacy 
to her of the second-best bed is an evidence which does 
not in any way negative the later testimony. 

" The poet's two sureties, Fulk Sandells and John 
Richardson, were inhabitants of the little hamlet of 
Shottery ; and on the only inscribed seal attached to the 
bond are the initials R. H., while the consent of friends is 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 39 

in that document limited to those of the bride. ~No con- 
clusion can be safely drawn from the last-named clause, 
it being one very usual in such instruments ; but it may 
perhaps be inferred from the other circumstances that the 
marriage was arranged under the special auspices of the 
Hathaway family, and that the engagement was not 
received with favour in Henley Street. The case, how- 
ever, admits of another explanation. It may be that the 
nuptials of Shakespeare, like those of so many others of 
that time, had been privately celebrated some months 
before under the illegal forms of the Catholic Church, and 
that the relatives were now anxious for the marriage to 
be openly acknowledged. 

" It was extremely common at that time, amongst the 
local tradespeople, for the sanction of parents to be given 
to early marriages, in cases where there was no money and 
but narrow means of support on either side. It is not 
therefore likely that the consent of John and Mary Shake- 
speare to the poet's marriage was withheld on such 
grounds ; nor, with the exception of the indications in the 
bond, are there other reasons for suspecting that they 
were averse to the union. But whether they were so or 
not is a question that does not invalidate the assumption 
that the lovers followed the all but universal rule of con- 
solidating their engagement by means of a pre-contract. 
This ceremony was generally a solemn affair, enacted 
with the immediate concurrence of all the parents ; but it 
was at times informally conducted separately by the be- 
trothing parties, — evidence of the fact, communicated 
by them to independent persons, having been held, at 
least in Warwickshire, to confer a sufficient legal validity 
on the transaction. Thus in 1585 William Holder and 
Alice Shaw, having made a contract, came voluntarily 
before two witnesses, — one of whom was a person named 
Willis, and the other a John Maides of Snitterfield, — on 
purpose to acknowledge that they were irrevocably 



40 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

pledged to wedlock. The lady evidently considered her- 
self already as good as married, saying to Holder, ' I do 
confesse that I am your wief, and have forsaken my 
frendes for your sake, and I hope you will use me well ; ' 
and thereupon she ; gave him her hand.' Then, as 
Maides observes, ' the said Holder, mutatis mutandis, used 
the like words unto her in effect, and toke her by the 
hand, and kissed together in the presence of this deponent 
and the said Willis.' These proceedings are afterwards 
referred to in the same depositions as constituting a 
definite ' contract of marriage.' On another occasion, in 
1588, there was a pre-contract meeting at Alcester, the 
young lady arriving there unaccompanied by any of her 
friends. When requested to explain the reason of this 
omission, i she answered that her leasure wold not lett 
her, and that she thought she could not obtaine her 
mother's good-will ; " but," quoth she, " neverthelesse I am 
the same woman that I was before." ' The future bride- 
groom was perfectly satisfied with this assurance, merely 
asking her ' whether she was content to betake herself 
unto him ; and she answered, offring her hand, which he 
also tooke upon thoffer that she was content by her 
trothe, "and thereto," said she, "I geve thee my faith, 
and before these witnesses, that I am thy wief ; " and then 
he likewise answered in theis words, vidz., " and I geve 
thee my faith and troth, and become thy husband." ' 
These instances, to which several others could be added, 
prove decisively that Shakespeare could have entered, 
under any circumstances whatever, into a pre-contract 
with Anne Hathaway. It may be worth adding that 
espousals of this kind were, in the Midland counties, 
almost invariably terminated by the lady's acceptance of 
a bent sixpence. One lover, who was betrothed in the 
same year in which Shakespeare was engaged to Anne 
Hathaway, gave also a pair of gloves, two oranges, two 
handkerchiefs, and a girdle of broad red silk. A present 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 41 

of gloves on such an occasion was, indeed, nearly as 
universal as that of a sixpence. 

" It can never be right for a biographer, when he is un- 
supported by the least particle of evidence, to assume 
that the subject of his memoir departed unnecessarily from 
the ordinary usages of life and society. In Shakespeare's 
matrimonial case, those who imagine that there was no 
pre-contract have to make another extravagant admission. 
They must ask us also to believe that the lady of his 
choice was as disreputable as the flax-wench, and 
gratuitously united with the poet in a moral wrong that 
could have been converted by the smallest expenditure 
of trouble into a moral right. The whole theory is 
absolutely incredible. We may then feel certain that in 
the summer of the year 1582 William Shakespeare and 
Anne Hathaway were betrothed, either formally or 
informally, but at all events under conditions that could, 
if necessary, have been legally ratified. 

" There are reasons for believing that later in the 
century cohabitation between the pre-contract and the 
marriage began to be generally regarded with much dis- 
favour ; but the only means of arriving at an equitable 
judgment upon the merits of the present case lay in a 
determination to investigate it strictly in relation with 
practices the legitimacy of which was acknowledged in 
Warwickshire in the days of the poet's youth. If the 
antecedents of Shakespeare's union with Miss Hathaway 
were regarded with equanimity by their own neighbours, 
relatives, and friends, upon what grounds can a modern 
critic fairly impugn the propriety of their conduct ? And 
that they were so regarded is all but indisputable. Assum- 
ing, as we have a right to assume, that the poet's mother 
must have been a woman of sensitive purity, was she now 
entertaining the , remotest apprehension that her son's 
honour was imperilled ? Assuredly not ; for she had 
passed her youth amidst a society who believed that a 



42 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE. 

pre-contract had all the validity of a marriage, the former 
being really considered a more significant and important 
ceremony than the other. When her own father, Robert 
Arden, settled part of an estate upon his daughter Agnes, 
on July the seventeenth, 1550, he introduces her as nunc 
uxor Thome Stringer, ac nuper uxor Johannis Hewyns ; and 
yet the marriage was not solemnized until three months 
afterwards, — ' 1550, 15 October, was maryed Thomas 
Stringer unto Agnes Hwens, wyddow ' (Bear ley register). 
Let us hope that after the production of this decisive 
testimony nothing more will be heard of the insinua- 
tions that have hitherto thrown an unpleasant shadow 
over one of the most interesting periods of our author's 
career. 

" The marriage, in accordance with the general practice, 
no doubt took place within two or three days after the 
execution of the bond on November the 28th, 1582, the 
1 once asking of the bans' being included in the ceremonial 
service. The name of the parish in which the nuptials 
were celebrated has not been ascertained, but it must have 
been one of those places in the diocese of Worcester the 
early registers of which have been lost." (H.-P. i. 61-67.) 

" It is impossible, with our present means of informa- 
tion, to unravel the mystery that surrounds the descent 
of the poet's wife, nothing whatever being known for 
certain respecting her parents beyond the fact that their 
surname was Hathaway. The marriage-bond of Novem- 
ber, 1582, includes the only evidences respecting Anne 
Hathaway during her maidenhood that have yet been 
discovered. . . . 

" The poet's wife was on friendly terms with one 
Thomas Whittington of Shottery, the person mentioned 
as 'my sheepherd' by Richard Hathaway in 1581. This 
individual dies in April, 1601, and in a will drawn up in 
the previous month he bequeathed ' unto the poore people 
of Stratford xi. s. that is in the hand of Anne Shaxspere, 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 43 

wyfe unto Mr. Wyllyam Shaxpere, and is due debt unto 
me, beyng paid to mine executor by the sayd Wyllyam 
Shaxspere or his assignee according to the true meanyng 
of this my wyll.' " (H.-P. ii. 183, 186.) 

The following is the "Bond against Impedi- 
ments " which was exhibited at Worcester, in 
November, 1582, in anticipation of the marriage of 
Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, and is from the 
original preserved in the Bishop's registry : — 

" Noverint universi per presentes nos, Fulconem San- 
dells de Stratford in comitatu Warwicensi, agricolam, et 
Johannem Rychardson, ibidem agricolam, teneri et fir- 
miter obligari Ricardo Cosin, generoso, et Roberto 
Warmstry, notario publico, in quadraginta libris bone 
et legalis monete Anglie solvendis eisdem Ricardo et 
Roberto, heredibus, executoribus vel assignatis suis, ad 
quam quidem solucionem bene et fideliter faciendam 
obligamus nos et utrumque nostrum, per se pro toto et in 
solidum, heredes, executores et administratores nostros, 
firmiter per presentes sigillis nostris sigillatas. Datum 
28 die Novembris, anno regni domine nostre Elizabethe, 
Dei gratia Anglie, Francie et Hibernie regine, fidei 
defensoris, etc., 25. 

" The condicion of this obligacion ys suche that if 
herafter there shall not appere any lawfull lett or im- 
pediment, by reason of any pre-contract, consanguitie, 
affinitie, or by any other lawfull meanes whatsoever, but 
that William Shagspere one thone partie, and Anne 
Hathwey, of Stratford in the dioces of Worcester, 
maiden, may lawfully solemnnize matrimony together, 
and in the same afterwardes remaine and continew like 
man and wiife, according unto the lawes in that behalf 
provided ; and, moreover, if there be not at this present 
time any action, sute, quarrell, or demaund moved or 



44 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

depending before any judge, ecclesiasticall or temporall, 
for and concerning any suche lawfull lett or impediment ; 
and, moreover, if the said William Shagspere do not pro- 
ceed to solemnizacion of mariadg with the said Anne 
Hatlrwey without the consent of hir frindes ; and also if 
the said William do, upon his owne proper costes and 
expenses, defend and save harmless the right reverend 
Father in God, Lord John Bushop of Worcester, and his 
offycers, for licensing them the said William and Anne 
to be maried together with once asking of the bannes of 
matrimony betwene them, and for all other causes which 
may ensue by reason or occasion thereof, — that then the 
said obligacion to be voyd and of none effect, or els to 
stand and abide in full force and vertue." 

1583. His first child, Susanna, baptized on Sun- 
day, May 26. 

1585. The baptism of his twin children, Harn- 
net and Judith, registered at Stratford-on-Avon, 
February 2. 

" Three or four years after his union with Anne Hath- 
away he had, observes Rowe, ' by a misfortune common 
enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company ; and 
amongst them some that made a frequent practice of 
deer-stealing engaged him with them more than once in 
robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy 
of Charlecote, near Stratford. For this he was prose- 
cuted by that gentleman, as he thought, somewhat too 
severely, and in order to revenge that ill-usage he made 
a ballad upon him ; and though this, probably the first 
essay of his poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been so 
very bitter that it redoubled the prosecution against him 
to that degree that he was obliged to leave his business 
and family in Warwickshire for some time, and shelter 
himself in London,' If we accept this narrative, which is 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 45 

the most reliable account of the incident that has been 
preserved, the date of the poet's departure from his native 
town may be reasonably assigned to the year 1585. He 
certainly could not have left the neighborhood before the 
summer of 1584, — the baptisms of his youngest children, 
the twin Hamnet and Judith, having been registered at 
Stratford-on-Avon on February the second in the follow- 
ing year; neither could his retreat have been enforced 
during his oppressor's attendance at the Parliament which 
sat from November the twenty-third, 1584, to March the 
twenty-ninth, 1585. It is worthy of remark that Sir 
Thomas had the charge, early in the last-named month, 
of a bill ' for the preservation of grain and game ; ' so it 
is clear that the knight of Charlecote was a zealous game- 
preserver, even if the introduction of the proposed meas- 
ure were not the result of the depredations committed by 
the poet and his companions. 

" Another version of the narrative has been recorded 
by Archdeacon Davies, who was the vicar of Sapperton, 
a village in the neighboring county of Gloucester, and 
who died there in the year 1708. According to this 
authority the future great dramatist was ' much given to 
all unluckiness in stealing venison and rabbits, particu- 
larly from Sir Thomas Lucy, who had him oft whipped 
and sometimes imprisoned, and at last made him fly his 
native county, to his great advancement ; but his revenge 
was so great that he is Justice Clodpate, and calls him a 
great man, and that in allusion to his name bore three 
louses rampant for his arms.' It is evident, therefore, 
from the independent testimonies of Rowe and Davies, 
that the deer-stealing history was accepted in the poet's 
native town and in the neighborhood during the latter 
part of the seventeenth century. That it has a solid 
basis of fact cannot admit of a reasonable doubt. It 
was current at a period in the history of Shakespeare 
before tales of the kind became liable to intentional fal- 



46 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

sification ; and the impressive story of the penniless fugi- 
tive, who afterwards became a leading inhabitant of 
Stratford and the owner of Xew Place, was one likely to 
be handed down with passable fidelity to the grandchil- 
dren of his contemporaries. It is, moreover, one which 
exactly harmonizes with circumstances that materially 
add to its probability, — with the satirical allusions to 
the Lucys in their immediate relation to a poaching ad- 
venture, and with the certainty that there must have been 
some very grave reason to induce him to leave his wife 
and children to seek his unaided fortunes in a distant 
part of the country, rendering himself at the same time 
liable to imprisonment (5 Eliz. c. 4, s. 17) for violating 
the conditions of his apprenticeship. If there had been 
no such grave reason, how should there have been the 
provincial belief in 1693 that he had run ; from his mas- 
ter to London, and was there received into the play-house 
as a servitor ' ? What but a strong and compulsory mo- 
tive could have driven him so far away from a locality to 
which, as we gather from subsequent events, he was sen- 
sitively attached ? The only theory, indeed, that would 
sanction the unconditional rejection of the traditions is 
that which assumes that they were designed in explana- 
tion of the allusions in the ' Merry Wives of Windsor ; ' 
but surely if that had been the case there would have 
been a more explicit reference to the accusations of 
Master Shallow, — charges that are in the aggregate of a 
more formidable description than those which have been 
transmitted by hearsay : ' You have hurt my keeper, kill'd 
my dogs, stol'n my deer' (edition 1602). 'You have 
beaten my men, kill'd my deer, and broke open my 
lodge ' (edition of 1623). It is also exceedingly improb- 
able that there should have been any one at Stratf ord-on- 
Avon at the time of Betterton's visit who would have 
cared to elucidate the justice's implications ; and it would 
appear, from the incorrect quotations which are given by 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 47 

Davies, that even the archdeacon was somewhat better 
acquainted with the history of Sir Thomas Lucy than he 
was with the comedy.' , (H.-P. i. 67-71.) 

Of that "first essay of his poetry" no copy 
exists, but the following fabrications have often 
been published : — 

" A parliament member, a justice of peace, 
At home a poor scarecrow, at London an asse ; 
If lowsie is Lucy, as some volke miscalle it, 
Then Lucy is lowsie whatever befall it. 
He thinks himself greate, 
Yet an asse in his state, 

We allowe by his ears but with asses to mate : 
If Lucy is lowsie, as some volke miscalle it, 
Sing lowsie Lucy, whatever befall it. 

" Sir Thomas was too covetous, 
To covet so much deer, 
When horns enough upon his head 
Most plainly did appear. 
Had not his worship one deer left ? 
What then ? He had a wife, 
Took pains enough to find him horns 
Should last him during life." 

" Sir Thomas Lucy used a seal with the plain 
design of three luces interlaced." A luce is a full 
grown pike. Slender alludes to a "dozen white 
luces." 

The general tradition amongst the rustics of the 
neighborhood was that the poet was wild in his 
younger days. Sir Philip Sidney's " May-Lady" 
terms deer-stealing a " pretty service." The stu- 
dents of Oxford had been for many generations the 
most notorious poachers in all England, 



48 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 

"Dr. Forman relates how two students in 1573, — one 
of them John Thornborough, then aged twenty-one, 
afterwards Dean of York and Bishop of Worcester, — 
i never studied nor gave themselves to their books, but to 
go to schools of defence, to the dancing-schools, to steal 
deer and conies, and to hunt the hare, and to wooing of 
wenches.' " (H.-P. i. 73.) 

" It was natural that Sir Thomas Lucy should do 
his best to protect his covers from spoliation, and it 
is easy to believe that there may have been a display 
of arbitrary and undue severity in the process. . . . 
But the county records of the time not being extant, 
it is now impossible to ascertain the course of any 
proceedings that may have been taken in the matter." 
(H.-P. i. 74.) 

" That the magistrates in the vicinity of Stratford-on- 
Avon were accustomed to exercise a despotic sway over 
the poorer inhabitants may be gathered from the fact 
that at a somewhat later period William Combe, the 
squire of Welcombe, sent a person of the name of Hiccox 
to Warwick gaol, and refused bail, merely because he 
' did not behave himself with such respect in his presence 
it seemeth he looked for.' What would he not have done 
if he had first caught his disrespectful visitor marching 
off with his rabbits and deer, and then, with unprece- 
dented temerity, electrifying the neighborhood by the 
circulation of a poetical lampoon reflecting upon the in- 
telligence and judgment of His Worship ! Now, Shake- 
speare, in his poaching days, the penniless son of an 
impecunious father, and without friends of appreciable 
influence, would assuredly have fared no better on such 
occasions than poor Hiccox, unless he had been, as he 
obviously was not, high in the favour of Davy, the 
servingman ; and the most rational mode of accounting 
for and excusing his long-sustained resentment is to 
recognize a substantial groundwork of facts in the early 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 49 

traditions. They are in unison with possibilities that 
furnish an intelligible explanation of the known circum- 
stances ; and all becomes clear if it be assumed that a 
persistive, harsh, and injudicial treatment elicited the 
obnoxious ballad. Its author could have been severely 
punished under the common law for its exhibition ; and 
there can be little doubt that it was a contemplated 
movement in reference to the libel, in addition perhaps 
to some other indictment, that occasioned his flight to 
the metropolis." (H.-P. i. 75-76.) 

Dr. Johnson, in 1765, reports the tradition of his 
day, and says that Shakespeare " came to London a 
needy adventurer, and lived for a time by very 
mean employments." 

A tract called "Katseis Ghost," entered at the 
Stationers' Hall, May 31, 1605, contains a passage 
reasonably believed to refer to the great dramatist. 
Eatsey says to a strolling player : — 

" ' Get thee to London, for if one man were dead, they 
will have much neede of such a one as thou art. There 
would be none in my opinion fitter than thyselfe to play 
his parts. My conceipt is such of thee that I durst ven- 
ture all the mony in my purse on thy head to play Hamlet 
with him for a wager. There thou shalt learne to be 
frugal! (for players were never so thriftie as they are now 
about London) and to feed upon all men, and to let none 
feede upon thee ; to make thy hand a stranger to thy 
pocket, thy hart slow to performe thy tongue's promise. 
And when thou feelest thy purse well lined, buy thee 
some place or lordship in the country, that, growing 
weary of playing, thy mony may there bring thee to 
dignitie and reputation; then thou needest care for no 
man, nor not for them that before made thee prowd with 
speaking their words upon the stage.' ' Sir, I thanke 

4 



50 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

you,' quoth the player, i for this good counsell ; I promise 
you I will make use of it, for I have heard, indeede, of 
some that have gone to London very meanly, and have 
come in time to be exceeding wealthy.' 'And in this 
presage and propheticall humor of mine,' sayes Ratsey, 
i kneele downe : Eise up, Sir Simon Two Shares and a 
Half e ! thou art now one of my knights, and the first 
knight that ever was player in England.' " 

Dr. Johnson says : — 

" In the time of Elizabeth, coaches being yet uncom- 
mon and hired coaches not at all in use, those who were 
too proud, too tender, or too idle to walk went on horse- 
back to any distant business or diversion. Many came 
on horseback to the play ; and when Shakespeare fled to 
London from the terror of a criminal prosecution, his 
first expedient was to wait at the door of the play-house, 
and hold the horses of those that had no servants, that 
they might be ready again after the performance. In 
this office he became so conspicuous for his care and 
readiness, that in a short time every man as he alighted 
called for Will Shakespeare, and scarcely any other waiter 
was trusted with a horse while Will Shakespeare could be 
had. This was the first dawn of better fortune ; Shake- 
speare, finding more horses put into his hand than he 
could hold, hired boys to wait under his inspection, who, 
when Will Shakespeare was summoned, were immediately 
to present themselves, ' I am Shakespeare's boy, sir ! ' In 
time Shakespeare found higher employment ; but as long 
as the practice of riding to the play-house continued, the 
waiters that held the horses retained the appellation of 
< Shakespeare's boys.' " 

Mr. Phillipps says that " Dr. Johnson received 
this anecdote from Pope, to whom it had been 
communicated by Eowe ; and it appears to have 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE. 51 

reached the last-named writer through Betterton 
and Davenant." 

"Another and much simpler version of the anecdote 
was published as follows in 1818 : ' Mr. J. M. Smith said 
he had often heard his mother state that Shakspeare 
owed his rise in life, and his introduction to the theatre, 
to his accidentally holding the horse of a gentleman at 
the door of the theatre on his first arriving in London ; 
his appearance led to enquiry and subsequent patronage.' x 
This form of the tradition is as old as 1785, the mother 
of J. M. Smith having been Mary Hart, who died in that 
year, and was a lineal descendant from Joan Shakespeare, 
the poet's sister. . . . 

" Whoever it was, tavern-keeper or other, that in those 
days first entrusted Shakespeare with the care of a horse, 
must have seen honesty written in his face. The theatres 
of the suburbs, observes a Puritanical Lord Mayor of 
London in the year 1597, are < ordinary places for vagrant 
persons, maisterless men, thieves, horsestealers, whore- 
mongers, coozeners, conycatchers, contrivers of treason, 
and other idele and daungerous persons to meet together, 
and to make theire matches, to the great displeasure of 
Almightie God and the hurt and annoyance of her Majes- 
ties people, which cannot be prevented nor discovered by 
the governors of the Citie for that they ar owt of the 
Citiees jurisdiction. , . . . 

"A gentleman who visited the Church of the Holy 
Trinity at Stratford-on-Avon early in the year 1693 gives 
the following interesting notice of the traditional belief, 
then current in the poet's native county, respecting this 
incident in his life : ' The clarke that shew'd me this 
church is above eighty years old ; he says that this Shake- 
spear was formerly in this towne bound apprentice to a 
butcher, but that he run from his master to London, and 

1 Monthly Magazine, February, 1818, repeated in MoncriefTs 
Guide, eds. 1822, 1824. 



52 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

there was received into the play-house as a serviture, and 
by this meanes had an oppertunity to be what he after- 
wards prov'd.' Although the parish-clerk was not so old as 
is here represented, William Castle, who was then clerk and 
sexton (Stratford Vestry-book), having been born in the 
year 1628 (Stratford Register), there can be no hesita- 
tion in receiving his narrative as the truthful report of a 
tradition accepted in the neighborhood at the time at 
which it was recorded. Eowe, in his ' Account of the 
Life of Shakespear,' published in 1709, assigns a special 
reason for the poet's departure from Stratford, but agrees 
with the clerk in the point now under consideration ; and 
a similar evidence appears in a later biographical essay of 
less authority and smaller value, published in a newspaper 
called the 'London Chronicle ' in 1769 : * His first admis- 
sion into the playhouse was suitable to his appearance. 
A stranger, and ignorant of the art, he was glad to be 
taken into the company in a very mean rank ; nor did 
his performance recommend him to any distinguished 
notice.' " (H.-P. ii. 287, 288.) 

" We are informed by Mai one, writing in 1780, that 
there was ' a stage tradition that his first office in the 
theatre was that of prompter's attendant, whose employ- 
ment it is to give the performers notice to be ready to 
enter as often as the business of the play requires their 
appearance on the stage ; ' nor can the future eminence 
of Shakespeare be considered to be opposed to the recep- 
tion of the tradition. 'I have known men within my 
remembrance,' observes Dowries, in 1710, 'arrive to the 
highest dignities of the theatre, who made their entrance in 
the quality of mutes, joint-stools, flower-pots, and tapestry- 
hangings.' " (H.-P. i. 84.) 

There were then two theatres, called the Theatre 
and the Curtain, in the parish of Shoreditch, about 
half a mile from the city walls of London. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 53 

1587. " Nothing has been discovered respecting the 
history of Shakespeare's early theatrical life, but there is 
an interesting evidence that no estrangement between 
his parents and himself had followed the circumstances 
that led him to the metropolis, — a fact which is estab- 
lished by his concurrence with them in an endeavor that 
they were making in 1587 to obtain favourable terms for 
a proposed relinquishment of Asbies. . . . 

" It clearly appears, from the account given by Rowe, 
that Shakespeare returned to his native town after the 
dangers from the Lucy prosecution had subsided. The 
same writer informs us that the visit occurred subse- 
quently to his junction with one of the theatrical com- 
panies. . . . However greatly he may have desired to 
rejoin his family, it is therefore not probable that the 
poet would be found again at Stratford-on-Avon before 
the year 1587 ; and then we have, in the Lambert episode, 
a substantial reason for believing .that he had at that 
time a conference with his parents on the subject of the 
Asbies mortgage. . . . 

" The actors of those days were, as a rule, individual 
wanderers, spending a large portion of their time at a 
distance from their families ; and there is every reason 
for believing that this was the case with Shakespeare, 
from the period of his arrival in London until nearly the 
end of his life. All the old theatrical companies were 
more or less of an itinerant character, and it is all but 
impossible that he should not have already commenced 
his provincial tours. But what were the directions, or 
who were his associates, have not been discovered. There 
is not, indeed, a single particle of evidence respecting his 
career during the next five years, that is to say, from the 
time of the Lambert negociation, in 1587, until he is 
discovered as a rising actor and dramatist in 1592. 

" This interval must have been the chief period of 
Shakespeare's literary education. Removed prematurely 



54 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

from school, residing with illiterate relatives in a bookless 
neighborhood, thrown into the midst of occupations 
adverse to scholastic progress, it is difficult to believe that 
when he first left Stratford he was not all but destitute of 
polished accomplishments. He could not, at all events, 
under the circumstances in which he had then so long 
been placed, have had the opportunity of acquiring a 
refined style of composition. After he had once, how- 
ever, gained a footing in London, he would have been 
placed under different conditions. Books of many kinds 
would have been accessible to him, and he would have 
been almost daily within hearing of the best dramatic 
poetry of the age. There would also no doubt have been 
occasional facilities for picking up a little smattering of 
the continental languages, and it is almost beyond a doubt 
that he added somewhat to his classical knowledge during 
his residence in the metropolis. It is, for instance, hardly 
possible that the * Amores of Ovid,' whence he derived 
his earliest motto, could have been one of his school- 
books." (H.-P. i. 89, 91, 95.) 

1590. Spenser's " Faerie Queene " and Sidney's 
" Arcadia " appear. 

1591-92. " Shakespeare commenced to write for the 
stage in or shortly before the winter of 1591-1592, and 
prior to the summer of 1598 he had written at least 
fifteen plays, including several of his master-pieces. In 
the course of the next four years he had produced, 
amongst others, ' Hamlet ' and ' Twelfth Night.' Having 
thus reached the summit of dramatic power in the middle 
of his literary career, an endeavor to classify or to study 
a large number of his works in an order of progressive 
ability would be manifestly futile. Shakespeare is not to 
be judged by ordinary rules; and although it is obvi- 
ous that a few of his plays belong to the very early 
years of authorship, it is equally certain that he shortly 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 55 

afterwards exercised an unlimited control over his art." 
(H.-P.ii. 332.) 

1592. " Although Shakespeare had exhibited a taste 
for poetic composition before his first departure from 
Stratford-on-Avon, all traditions agree in the statement 
that he was a recognized actor before he joined the ranks 
of the dramatists. This latter event appears to have 
occurred on the third of March, 1592, when a new drama, 
entitled ' Henry or Harry the Sixth,' was brought out 
by Lord Strange's Servants, — then acting either at New- 
ington or Southwark under an arrangement with Hens- 
lowe, a wealthy stage manager, to whom no doubt the 
author had sold the play. In this year, as we learn on 
unquestionable authority, Shakespeare was first rising 
into prominent notice ; so that the history then produced, 
now known as the First Part of Henry the Sixth, was in 
all probability his earliest complete dramatic work. Its 
extraordinary success must have secured for the author a 
substantial position in the theatrical world of the day. 
The play had, for those times, an unusually long run ; so 
that Nash, writing in or before the following month of 
July, states that the performances of it had in that short 
interval been witnessed by ' ten thousand spectators at 
least,' and although this estimate may be overstrained, 
there can be no hesitation in receiving it as a valid testi- 
mony to the singular popularity of the new drama." 
(H.-P. i. 97.) 

Thomas Nash, in his " Pierce Pennilesse his 
Supplication to the Devil/' says : — 

" The pollicie of plaies is very necessary, howsoever some 
shallow-brained censurers (not the deepest searchers into 
the secrets of government) mightily oppugne them. For 
whereas the afternoone being the idlest time of the day 
wherein men that are their own masters (as gentlemen of 
the court, the innes of the court, and a number of captains 



56 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

and soldiers about London) do wholly bestow themselves 
upon pleasure, and that pleasure they devide (how vertu- 
ously it skills not) either in gaming, following of harlots, 
drinking, or seeing a play, — is it not better (since of four 
extreames all the world cannot keepe them but they will 
choose one) that they should betake them to the least, 
which is plaies ? " 

In Nash's " Pierce Pennilesse," entered on the 
register of the Stationers' Company, August 8, 1592, 
is also the following possible allusion to the First 
Part of Henry Sixth : " How would it have joy'd 
brave Talbot (the terror of the French) to thinke 
that after he had lyne two hundred yeare in his 
tomb, he should triumph again e on the stage, and 
have his bones new embalmed with the teares of 
ten thousand spectators at least (at severall times), 
who in the tragedian that represents his person 
imagine they behold him fresh bleeding ! " 

" The ' unquestionable authority ' named above is Robert 
Greene, a popular writer and dramatist, who had com- 
menced his literary career nine years previously, and who 
died on the third of September, 1592. In a work entitled 
the ' Groats worth of Wit,' written shortly before his death, 
he had travestied, in an interesting and sarcastic episode 
respecting some of his contemporaries, a line from one of 
Shakespeare's then recent compositions, — ' O tiger's heart, 
wrapp'd in a woman^s hide ! ' This line is of extreme 
interest as including the earliest record of words composed 
by the great dramatist. It forms part of a vigorous 
speech, which is as Shakespearean hi its natural fidelity 
as it is Marlowean in its diction. That speech of the 
unfortunate Duke of York is one of the most striking in 
the play, and the above line was probably selected for 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 57 

quotation by Greene on account of its popularity through 
effective delivery. The quotation shows that the Third 
Part of Henry the Sixth was written previously to 
September, 1592 ; and hence it may be concluded that all 
Shakespeare's plays on the subject of that reign, although 
perhaps subsequently revised in a few places by the 
author, were originally produced in that year. " (H.-P. 
i. 98.) 

The little work entitled " Greene's Groats-worth 
of Wit, bought with a Million of Bepentaunce," 
was entered at Stationers' Hall, September 20, 
1592. The passage above alluded to is as follows : 
" Is it not strange that I, to whom they al have 
beene beholding ; is it not like that you, to whome 
they all have beene beholding, — shall, were ye in 
that case that I am now, be both at once of them 
forsaken ? Yes, trust them not ; for there is an up- 
start crow, beautified with our feathers, that, with 
his Tygers heart wrapt in a Players hide, supposes 
he is as well able to bumbast out a blanke verse as 
the best of you; and being an absolute Johannes 
Factotum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake- 
scene in a countrie. that I might intreat your 
rare wits to be imployed in more profitable courses, 
and let those apes imitate your past excellence, 
and never more acquaint them with your admired 
inventions ! " 

" It was natural that these impertinent remarks should 
have annoyed the object of them; and that they were 
so far effective may be gathered from an interesting state- 
ment made by the editor, Henry Chettle, in a work of his 
own, entitled ' Kind-Heart's Dream ' that he published a 



58 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

few weeks afterwards, in which he siDecially regrets that 
the attack had proved offensive to Shakespeare, whom, 
he observes, ' at that time I did not so much spare as 
since I wish I had ; for that as I have moderated the he ate 
of living writers, and might have used my owne discre- 
tion, especially in such a case, the author beeing dead. 
That I did not, I am as sory as if the originall fault had 
beene my fault ; because myselfe have seene his demeanor 
no lesse civill than he exelent in the qualitie he professes ; 
besides, divers of worship have reported his uprightnes of 
dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace 
in writting, that aprooves his art.' Apologies of this 
kind are so apt to be overstrained that we can hardly 
gather more from the present one than the respecta- 
ble position Shakespeare held as a writer and actor ; 
and that Chettle, having made his acquaintance, was 
desirous of keeping friends with one who was begin- 
ning to be appreciated by the higher classes of society." 
(H.-P. i. 100.) 

At the time of Greene's lampoon, the poet's 
father was busily engaged with his counters in 
appraising the goods of Henry Field, a tanner of 
Stratford-on-Avon, whose inventory, attached to his 
will, was taken in August, 1592. Richard Field, a 
son of Henry, went to London in 1579, became a 
printer, and began business on his own account 
about 1587. There was the provincial tie between 
the poet and Richard Field, and Field printed his 
first poem. 

1593. Publication of " Venus and Adonis," im- 
printed by Richard Field. The dedication is as 
follows : — 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 59 

To the Right Honorable Henrie Wriothefley, Earle of 
Southampton, and Baron of Titchfield: 
Right Honourable, I know not how I shall offend in 
dedicating my unpolisht lines to your Lordship, nor how 
the worlde will censure mee for choosing so strong a 
proppe to support so weake a burthen ; onelye if your 
Honour seeme but pleased, I account myselfe highly 
praised, and vowe to take aduantage of all idle houres, till 
I have honoured you with some graver labour. But if 
the first heire of my inuention prone deformed, I shall 
be sorie it had so noble a god-father, and never after eare 
so barren a land, for feare it yeeld me still so bad 
a haruest. T leaue it to your Honourable suruey, and 
your Honor to your hearts content, which I wish may 
alwaies answere your owne wish, and the worlds hopefull 
expectation. Your Honors in all dutie, 

William Shakespeare. 

Field registered the copyright on the 18th of 
April, and John Harrison published the first three 
editions. The poem " was favorably received and 
long continued to be the most popular book of the 
kind." Malone's Inquiry, 1796, quotes the follow- 
ing entry from a manuscript diary : "12th of June, 
1593, for the Survay of Fraunce, with the Venus 
and Athonay per Shakspere, xij. dP 

Lord Southampton, then in his twentieth year, 
was "wealthy, accomplished, and romantic. . . . 
Literature was nearly the only passport of the lower 
and middle classes to the countenance and friend- 
ship of the great." 

The following are copyright entries : — 

" 1593, xviij Aprilis. Richard Feild. — Entred for his 
copie, vnder thandes of the Archbisshop of Cant, and Mr. 



60 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 






Warden Stirrop, a booke intuled Venus and Adonis. 
Assigned ouer to Mr. Harrison, sen., 25 Junij, 1594. 1 

"1593-4, vj. die Februarij. John Danter. — Entred 
for his copye, vnder thandes of bothe the wardens, a 
booke intituled a Noble Roman Historye of Tytus 
Andronicus. 

" 1593-4, xij Marcij. Thomas Myllington. — Entred for 
his copie, vnder the handes of bothe the wardens, a booke 
intituled the firste parte of the contention of the twoo 
famous houses of york and Lancaster, with the deathe of 
the good Duke Humfrey, and the banishement and deathe 
of the duke of Suff : and the tragicall ende of the prowd 
Cardinall of Winchester, with the notable rebellion of 
Jack Cade and the duke of yorkes first clayme vnto 
the crowne." 

1594. " Titus Andronicus/' his earliest tragedy, 
was " successfully produced before a large audience 
on January 23, by the Earl of Sussex's actors, play- 
ing under Phillip Henslowe," a theatrical proprietor 
and manager. His earliest dramas were produced 
at the Rose, a circular building in Southwark 
marked on a map of the time (John Norden's) as 
" the play-howse." Mr. Phillipps speaks of Shake- 
speare's " apartment in Southwark," south of the 
Thames and near Bank Side. 2 The play was soon 
afterwards " entered on the books of the Stationers' 
Company and published by Danter. It was also 
performed, almost if not quite simultaneously, by 
the servants of the Earls of Derby and Pembroke." 

1 The last paragraph is a marginal note inserted at or near 
the latter date. 

2 See " Bankside and its Theatres," and " Old Southwark 
and its People," by William Rendle. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 61 

Mr. Phillipps says : " There appears to have been 
generally a disinclination on Shakespeare's part to 
originate either plots or incidents. Writing first 
for a living, and then for affluence, his sole aim 
was to please an audience, most of whom, be it 
remembered, were not only illiterate, but unable to 
either read or write. 7 ' 

" Lucrece " was published in May ; " printed by 
Richard Field for John Harrison." The dedication 
is as follows : — 

To the Right Honourable, Henry Wriothesley, Earle of 
Southampton, and Baron of Titclifteld : 

The loue I dedicate to your Lordship is without end : 
wherof this Pamphlet without beginning is but a super- 
fluous Moity. The warrant I haue of your Honourable 
disposition, not the worth of my vntutord Lines, makes it 
assured of acceptance. What I haue done is yours, what 
I haue to doe is yours, being part in all I haue deuoted 
yours. Were my worth greater, my duety would shew 
greater ; meane time, as it is, it is bound to your Lord- 
ship, to whom 1 wish long life still lengthned with all 
happinesse. Your Lordships in all duety. 

William Shakespeare. 

The dedications of the two poems are the only 
specimens we have of Shakespeare's prose. Mr. 
Phillipps says : " This magnificent poem almost 
immediately secured for its author a higher reputa- 
tion than would have been established by the most 
brilliant efforts of dramatic art." 

September 3. A work entered at Stationers' Hall, 
entitled " Willobie his Avisa ; Or, the true Picture 



62 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

of a modest Maid and of a chast and constant 
Wife ; ' contains these lines : — 



" In Lavlne Land though L'tvie bost, 
There hath beene seene a Constant dame ; 
Though Rome lament that she have lost 
The gareland of her rarest fame, 

Yet now we see that here is found 
As great a Faith in English ground. 

u Though Collatine have deerely bought 
To high renowne a lasting life, 
And found that most in vaine have sought 
To have a Faire and Constant wife, — 

Yet Tarquyne pluckt his glistering grape, 
And Shakespeare paints poore Lucrece rape. ,; 






It is possible that Shakespeare is meant by the 
words " his familiar frend W. S." in Henry Wil- 
lobie's " Italo-Hispalensis/ 7 1594, and in cantos 45 
and 47 of the " Avisa." 

An unknown author in 1594 wrote " Epicedium. 
A funerall Song, upon the vertuous life and godly 
death of the right worshipfull Lady Helen Branch." 
It contains these lines : — 

" You that to shew your wits have taken toyle 
In regist'ring the deeds of noble men, 
And sought for matter in a forraine soyle 
As worthie subjects of your silver pen, 
Whom you have rais'd from darke oblivion's den ; 
You that have writ of chaste Lucretia, 
Whose death was witnesse of her spotlesse life ; 
Or pen'd the praise of sad Cornelia, 
Whose blamelesse name hath made her fame so rife 
As noble Pompey's most renouned wife, — 
Hither unto your home direct your eies, 
Whereas, unthought on, much more matter lies." 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 63 

In this year, also, Michael Drayton wrote : — 

" Lucrece, of whom proud Home hath boasted long, 
Lately reviv'd to live another age, 
And here arriv'd to tell of Tarquin's wrong, 
Her chaste denial, and the tyrants rage, 
Acting her passions on our stately stage, — 
She is remember'd, all forgetting me, 
Yet I as fair and chaste as ere was she." 

Before June 25, the second edition of " Venus 
and Adonis " came out. In June " Titus Andro- 
nicus " was performed at Newington Butts. 

" The earliest definite notice of [Shakespeare's] appear- 
ance on the stage is one in which he is recorded as having 
been a player in two comedies that were acted before 
Queen Elizabeth in the following December, at Greenwich 
Palace. . . . 

"The fact of Shakespeare having performed before 
Queen Elizabeth, 1594, is established by the following 
entry recorded in the manuscript accounts of the Treas- 
urer of the Chamber : ' To William Kempe, William 
Shakespeare, and Richarde Burbage, servauntes to the 
Lord Chamberleyne, upon the Councelles warrant dated 
at Whitehall xv. to Marcij, 1594, for twoe severall come- 
dies, or enterludes, shewed by them before her Majestie 
in Christmas tyme laste paste, — viz., upon St. Stepthens 
daye and Innocentes daye, — xiij. li. vj. s. viij. d., and by 
waye of her Majesties rewarde vj. li. xiij. s. iiij. d., in all 
xx. li.' The Court was then at Greenwich Palace. ' For 
making ready at Grenewich for the Qu. Majestie against 
her Highnes coming thether, by the space of viij. daies 
mense Decembr., 1594, as appereth by a bill signed by the 
Lord Chamberleyne, viij. li. xiij. s. iiij. d.' — MS. ibid. 
1 To Tho : Sheffeilde, under-keaper of her Majesties house 
at Grenewich for thallowaunce of viij. labourers there 



64 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 

three severall nightes, at xij. d. the man by reason it was 
night-woorke, for making cleane the greate chamber, the 
Presence, the galleries and clossettes, mense Decern br., 
1594, xxiiij. s.' — MS. ibidr (H.-P. i. 119, 121.) 

From this date Shakespeare " was never known 
to write for any other managers but those with 
whom he was theatrically connected." 

The earliest notice of the " Comedy of Errors " 
appears in an account of Gray's Inn Revels, 
or " Gesta Grayorum." It describes a perform- 
ance on the evening of December 28, 1594, and 
says : — 

"After their departure, the throngs and tumults did 
somewhat cease, althongh so much of them continued as 
was able to disorder and confound any good inventions 
whatsoever ; in regard whereof, as also for that the sports 
intended were especially for the gracing of the Tempi a- 
rians, it was thought good not to offer anything of 
account save dancing and revelling with gentlewomen ; 
and after such sports a Comedy of Errors, like to Plautus 
his Menechmus, was played by the players. So that 
night was begun and continued to the end in nothing but 
confusion and errors, whereupon it was ever afterwards 
called the Night of Errors." 

Mr. Phillipps believes " that the play was acted 
by the Lord Chamberlain's Company, — that to 
which Shakespeare was then attached, and the 
owners of the copyright." 

The following is a copyright entry : — 

"1594, 9 May. Mr. Harrison Sen. — Entred for his 
copie, vnder thand of Mr. Cawood, warden, a booke inti- 
tuled the Ravyshement of Lucrece." 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 65 

" 1594, 25 Junij. Mr. Harrison Sen. — Assigned ouer 
vnto him from Richard Feild, in open court holden this 
day, a book called Venus and Adonis, the which was 
before entred to Ric. Feild, 18 April, 1593." 

Hooker's " Ecclesiastical Polity " appears. 

1595. Mr. Phillipps thinks that Shakespeare 
may have adapted and partly written the anony- 
mous drama entitled the " Reign of King Edward 
the Third/' entered at Stationers' Hall, December 
1, 1595. One of its lines — 

" Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds " — 

is found in the poet's ninety-fourth sonnet. The 
sonnets " were not printed for many years after- 
wards." 

Shakespeare is named on the margin of a volume 
printed in Cambridge in 1595 and called " Poli- 
manteia ; Or, the Meanes lawf ull and unlawfully to 
judge of the fall of a Commonwealth, against the 
frivolous and foolish Conjectures of this Age." Mr. 
Phillipps says : " The author is eulogizing in his 
text the poets of England as superior to those of 
foreign nations, but the two side-notes (one consist- 
ing of three and the other of two words) in which 
references are made to the early poems of Shake- 
speare appear to be merely illustrative examples 
in support of the author's main position. They 
seem to be isolated, and altogether unconnected 
with other marginalia." 

5 



66 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 



Let o- 
All praise ther countries (sweet Cambridge) enuie 

ivorthy. (yet admire) my Virgil, thy petrarch, di- 

Lucrec'ia uine Spenser. And vnlesse I erre (a thing 

Sweet Shale- easie in such simplicitie), deluded by 
speare. dearlie beloued Delia and fortunatelie 

Eloquent fortunate Cleopatra, Oxford thou maist 

Gaueston. extoll thy courte-deare-verse happie 

Daniel I, whose sweete refined muse, in 
contracted shape, were sufficient a- 
mongst men to gaine pardon of the Wa?iton 

sinne to Rosemond, pittie to distressed Adonis 

Cleopatra, and euerliuing praise to her Watsons 

louing Delia. heyre. 

Iii this year John Weever wrote "Epi grammes 
in the oldest Cut and newest Fashion." One of 
them is given below : — 

AD GULIELMUM SHAKESPEARE. 

Honie-tong'd Shakespeare, when I saw thine issue 

I swore Apollo got them and none other ; 

Their rosie tainted features cloth'd in tissue, 

Some heaven born goddesse said to be their mother: 

Rose-checkt Adonis with his amber tresses, 

Faire fire-hot Venus charming him to love her, 

Chaste Lucretia virgine-like her dresses, 

Prowcl lust-stung Tarquine seeking still to prove her, 

Romea-Richard, — more whose names I know not, — 

Their sugred tongues and power attractive beuty 

Say they are Saints, althogh that Sts they shew not 

For thousands vowes to them subjective dutie ; 

They burn in love thy childre Shakespear het the : 

Go ! wo thy Muse more Nymphish brood beget them. 

There was published this year " The true Trag- 
edie of Eichard Duke of Yorke, and the death of 
good King Henrie the Sixt, with the whole con- 
tention betweene the two Houses Lancaster and 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 67 

Yorke, as it was sundrie times acted by the Right 
Honourable the Earle of Pembrooke his seruants. 
Printed at London by P. S. for Thomas Millington, 
and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint Peters 
Church in Cornwal. 1595." 

1595-96. Richard Carew wrote "The Excel- 
lencie of the English tongue by R. C. of Anthony 
Esquire to W. C. Camden's Remaines concerning 
Britaine." It contains the following : — 

" Adde hereunto, that whatsoever grace any other lan- 
guage carrie th in verse or prose, in Tropes or Metaphors, 
in Ecchoes and Agnominations, they may all be lively 
and exactly represented in ours. Will you have Platoes 
veine? — Reade Sir Tho. Smith; The Ionicke? — Sir 
Thomas Moore ; Ciceroes ? — Ascham ; Yarro ? — Chau- 
cer; Demosthenes? — Sir John Cheeke (who in his trea- 
tise to the Rebels hath comprised all the figures of 
Rhetorick). Will you readYirgil? — take the Earle of 
Surrey ; Catullus ? — Shakespeare and Barlows [Mario w's] 
fragment ; Ovid ? — Daniel ; Lucan ? — Spencer ; Martial ? 
— Sir John Davies and others. Will you have all in all 
for prose and verse ? — take the miracle of our age, Sir 
Philip Sidney." 

1596. A new edition of " Yenus and Adonis " is 
published. July 22, the Lord Chamberlain dies ; 
the actors (his servants) become the servants of 
Lord Hunsdon his son. They produce Shakespeare's 
tragedy of " Romeo and Juliet " at the Curtain 
Theatre. It takes the town by storm. Dryden 
said in 1672 that the dramatist " showed the best 
of his skill in his Mercntio ; and he said himself 
that he was forced to kill him in the third act to 



68 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

prevent being killed by him. But for my part I 
cannot find lie was so dangerous a person. I see 
nothing in him but what was so exceeding harm- 
less that he might have lived to the end of the 
play, and died in his bed, without offence to any 
man." 

In August the poet's only son, Ham net, then in 
his twelfth year, died at Stratford ; he was buried 
August 11. It is probable that Shakespeare's fam- 
ily, throughout his life, lived in his native town. 
He appears to have lived, when in town, " in lodg- 
ings near the Bear Garden in Southwark," and 
near the Bose Theatre. 

Copyright entry: "1596, 25 Junij. William 
Leeke. — Assigned ouer vnto him for his copie 
from Mr. Harrison thelder, in full court holden 
this day, by the said Mr. Harrison's consent, a 
booke called ( Venus and Adonis.' " 

" If the supposition that Marston speaks of the Curtain 
Theatre be correct, and no doubt can be fairly entertained 
on that point, it is certain that Shakespeare's tragedy of 
fr Romeo and Juliet ' was there < plaid publiquely by the 
Right Honourable the L. of Hunsdon his Servants ' (title- 
page of ed. 1597). Luscus is represented as infatuated 
with this play, and the allusion to his ' courting Lesbia's 
eyes' out of his theatrical commonplace book can but 
refer to Romeo's impassioned rhapsody on the eyes of 
Juliet. It may then be safely assumed that Shakespeare's 
' Romeo and Juliet ' was acted at the Curtain Theatre 
some time between July 22, 1596, the day on which Lord 
Hunsdon (then Lord Chamberlain of the Household) 
died, and April 17, 1597, when his son, Lord Hunsdon, 
was appointed to that office (Privy Council Register). 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE. 69 

During those nine months the company was known as 
Lord Hunsdon's, the same body of actors continuing 
throughout to serve those two noblemen ; so that any 
allusion, if there be one, to the Lord Chamberlain's Ser- 
vants, bearing date between August 6, 1596, and March 
5, 1597, would refer to a company under the patronage of 
Lord Cobham, who was the Lord Chamberlain during 
that period." (H.-P. i. 366.) 

The Theatre and Curtain are named together 
by Kainolds, in his " Overthrow of Stage Playes," 
1599, written in 1593, but there merely in reference 
to male actors being permitted to wear the costume 
of the other sex. 

" Although entertainments took place both at the 
Theatre and at the Curtain during the winter months, 
there can be but little doubt that the roof in each of 
these buildings merely covered the stage and galleries, 
the pit or yard being open to the sky. This was certainly 
the case in the latter theatre. The author of ' Vox Gra- 
culi of Jack Dawe's Prognostication ' (1623), describing 
the characteristics of the month of April, observes : 
* About this time new playes will be in more request than 
old ; and if company come currant to the Bull and Cur- 
taine, there will be more money gathered in one after- 
noone then will be given to Kingsland Spittle in a whole 
moneth ; also, if at this time about the houres of foure 
and five it waxe cloudy, and then raine downeright, 
they shall sit dryer in the galleries then those who 
are the understanding men in the yard/ The after- 
noon was likewise the usual time for the performances 
in Shakespeare's day. Chettle, in his 'Kind Hartes 
Dreame' (1592), alludes to bowling-alleys, situated be- 
tween the City walls and the Theatre, ' that were wont 
in the afternoones to be left empty, by the recourse 



70 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

of good fellows unto that unprofitable recreation of 
stage-playing.' 

" The charge for admission to the Theatre was a penny ; 
but this sum merely entitled the visitor to standing-room 
in the lower part of the house. If he wanted to enter 
any of the galleries, another penny was demanded ; and 
even then a good seat was not always secured without a 
repetition of the fee. None who go, observes Lambard, 
4 to Paris Gardein, the Bell Savage, or Theatre, to beholde 
beare-baiting, enterludes, or fence play, can account of 
any pleasant spectacle unlesse they first pay one pennie at 
the gate, another at the entrie of the scaffolde, and the 
third for a quiet standing.' " — Perambulation of Kent, 
(1596). 

1597. Mr. Phillipps says : " On New Year's 
Day, Twelfth Night, Shrove Sunday and Shrove 
Tuesday, Shakespeare's company performed before 
the Queen at Whitehall. In the summer they 
made a tonr through Sussex and Kent, visiting 
Favershani and Rye in August, and acting at Dover 
on the third of September. They travelled west- 
ward as far as Bristol ; acting about the same time 
at Marlborough and Bath." 

In the spring the dramatist bought New Place in 
Stratford, a mansion, and nearly an acre of ground, 
in the centre of the town, paying £60. It was 
his first investment in realty. The following 
is a copy of the foot of the fine levied on this 
occasion : — 

"Inter Willielmum Shakespeare, querentem, et Wil- 
lielmum Underhill, generosum, deforciantem, de uno 
mesuagio, duobus horreis, et duobus gardinis, cum perti- 
nenciis, in Stratford-super- Avon, unde placitum conven- 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 71 

cionis summonitum fuit inter eos in eadem curia, Scilicet 
quod predictus Willielmus Underhill recognovit predicta 
tenementa cum pertinenciis esse jus ipsius Willielmi 
Shakespeare, ut ilia que idem Willielmus habet de dono 
predicti Willielmi Underhill, et ilia remisit et quietum- 
clamavit de se et heredibus suis predicto Willielmo 
Shakespeare et heredibus suis imperpetuum; et preterea 
idem Willielmus Underhill concessit, pro se et heredibus 
suis, quod ipse warantizabunt predicto Willielmo Shake- 
speare et heredibus suis predicta tenementa cum perti- 
nenciis imperpetuum ; et pro hac recognicione, remissione, 
quieta clamancia, warantia, fine et concordia idem Wil- 
lielmus Shakespeare dedit predicto Willielmo Underhill 
sexaginta libras sterlingorum." (Pasch. 39 Eliz.) 

New Place was one of the largest domiciles in 
the town. It was built for Sir Hugh Clopton, 
and was known for two centuries as his " great 
house." 

" The chief fact of interest, however, in the personal 
annals of this year, is the remarkable circumstance that 
Shakespeare, after leaving his native town in indigence 
only twelve years previously, should now have been 
enabled to become, so far as material advantages were 
concerned, one of its leading inhabitants. However 
limited may have been the character of the poet's visits 
to his native town, there is no doubt that New Place was 
henceforward to be accepted as his established residence." 
(H.-P. i. 133.) 

The following plays were published this year : 

" An Excellent conceited Tragedie of Eomeo and 
Iuliet. As it hath been often (with great applause) 
plaid publiquely by the Right Honourable the L. of 
Hunsdon his Seruants. London : Printed by lohn.Danter. 
1597." 



72 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

" The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. As it 
hath beene publikely acted by the right Honourable the 
Lorde Chamberlaine his. Seruants. London : Printed 
by Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, and are to be 
sold at his shop in Paules churchyard at the signe of the 
Angel. 1597." 

" The Tragedy of King Richard the third. Contain- 
ing His treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence ; 
the pittiefull murther of his innocent nephewes ; his tyran- 
nicall vsurpation ; with the whole course of his detested 
life and most deserued death. As it hath beene lately 
Acted by the Right honourable the Lord Chamberlaine 
his seruants. At London : Printed by Valentine Sims 
for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Churchyard, at the 
signe of the Angell. 1597." 

The first publisher who secured a copyright of a 
play of Shakespeare was Andrew White, August 
29, the play being " Richard the Second." Mr. 
Phillipps says : " The deposition scene was omitted, 
for political reasons, and it was not inserted by the 
publishers until some years after the accession of 
James. Its omission in the first and second im- 
pressions excludes the probability of Lord Bacon 
having referred to Shakespeare's drama when he 
wrote, in his charge against Oliver St. John, c and 
for your comparison with Richard the Second, I 
see you follow the example of them that brought 
him upon the stage and into print in Queen Eliza- 
beth's time/ — the allusions here being almost cer- 
tainly to the insurrection stage-performance and 
Hay ward's Life of Henry IV." Hay ward was 
thrown into prison, in 1599, for issuing his ac- 
count of the fall of Richard. Elizabeth said, in 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 73 

1601, "I am Richard the Second: knowe yee not 
that ? " 

Shakespeare's " Richard the Third " was entered 
on the books of the Stationers' Company in October, 
1597. 

"Dick Burbage, the celebrated actor, undertook the 
character of Richard the Third, a part in which he was 
particularly celebrated. There was especially one telling 
speech in this most fiery of tragedies, — ' a horse ! a horse ! 
my kingdom for a horse!' — which was enunciated by 
him with so much vigour and effect that the line became 
an object for the imitation, and occasionally for the ridi- 
cule, of contemporary writers. The speech made such 
an impression on Marston that it appears in his Works, 
not merely in its authentic form, but satirized and tra- 
vestied into such lines as, ■ A man ! a man ! a kingdom 
for a man!' (Scourge of Villanie, edition 1598); 'A 
boate ! a boate ! a boate ! a full hundred markes for a 
boate ! * (Eastward Hoe, 1605) ; ' A foole ! a foole ! a 
f oole ! my coxcombe for a foole!' (Parasitaster, 1606). 
Burbage continued to act the part of Richard until his 
death in 1619, and his supremacy in the character lin- 
gered for many years in the recollection of the public ; so 
that Bishop Corbet, writing in the reign of Charles the 
First, and giving a description of the battle of Bosworth 
as narrated to him on the field by a provincial tavern- 
keeper, tells us that when the perspicuous guide — 

' Would have said King Richard died, 
And called, a horse ! a horse ! he Burbage cried.' " 

(H.-P. i. 149.) 

In November, John and Mary Shakespeare, the 
poet's father and mother, filed a bill in chan- 
cery for the recovery of the Asbies estate, " most 



74 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

likely at the poet's expense." The parents say 
in their bill, "Your said oratours are of small 
wealthe, and verey fewe trends and alyance in the 
saide countie." 

Mr. Phillipps says : " Queen Elizabeth held her 
Court at Whitehall in the Christinas holidays of 

1597, and amongst the plays then performed was, 
on December the 26, the comedy of ' Love's 
Labour's Lost,' printed early in the following year, 

1598, under the title of ( A Pleasant Conceited 
Comedie called, Loues labors lost.' . . . The local- 
ity of the performance is ascertained from the 
following entry in the accounts of the Treasurer of 
the Chamber ; i To Richard Brakenburie, for alter- 
ing and making readie of sundrie chambers at 
Whitehall against Christmas, and for the plaies, 
and for making readie in the hall for her Majestie, 
and for altering and hanging of the chambers after 
Christmas dale, by the space of three daies, mense 
Decembris, 1597, viij. li xiij. s. iiij. d.' " 

" The First Part of ' Henry the Fourth/ the appearance 
of which on the stage may be confidently assigned to the 
spring of the year 1597, not long before March 5, was 
followed immediately, or a few months afterwards, by 
the composition of the Second Part. It is recorded that 
both these plays were very favourably received by Eliza- 
beth, the Queen especially relishing the character of 
Falstaff ; and they were most probably amongst the 
dramas represented before that sovereign in the Christ- 
mas holidays of 1597-98. At this time, or then very 
recently, the renowned hero of the Boar's Head Tavern 
had been introduced as Sir John Oldcastle ; but the Queen 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 75 

ordered Shakespeare to alter the name of the character. 
This step was taken in consequence of the representations 
of some member or members of the Cobham family, who 
had taken offence at their illustrious ancestor Sir John 
Oldcastle (Lord Cobham), the Protestant martyr, being 
disparagingly introduced on the stage ; and accordingly, 
in or before the February of the following year, Falstaff 
took the place of Oldcastle, the former being probably 
one of the few names invented by Shakespeare." (H.-P. 
i. 153.) 

Stage-poets, says Fuller in his Church History, 
" have made themselves very bold with, and others 
very merry at, the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, 
whom they have fancied a boon companion, a jovial 
royster, and yet a coward to boot ; the best is, Sir 
John FalstafTe hath relieved the memory of Sir 
John Oldcastle, and of late is substituted buffoone 
in his place." 

According to Kowe, in his Life of Shakespeare 
(1709), the "part of Falstaff is said to have been 
originally written under the name of Oldcastle. 
Some of that family being then remaining, the 
Queen was pleas'd to command him to alter it; 
upon which he made use of Falstaff." 

Dowden says : — 

" The Prince, whom Shakspere admires and loves more 
than any other person in English history, afterwards to 
become Shakspere's ideal king of England, cares little for 
mere reputation. He does not think much of himself 
and of his own honour ; and while there is nothing to do, 
and his great father holds all power in his own right 
hand, Prince Hal escapes from the cold proprieties of the 



76 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

court to the boisterous life aud mirth of the tavern. He 
is, however, only waiting for a call to action ; and Shak- 
spere declares that from the first he was conscious of his 
great destiny, and while seeming to scatter his force in 
frivolity was holding his true self, well guarded, in re- 
serve. May there not have been a young fellow remem- 
bered by Shakspere, who went by night on deer-stealing 
frolics near Stratford, who yet kept from waste and ruin 
a true self, with which his comrades had small acquaint- 
ance, and who now helped Shakspere to understand the 
nature of the wild Prince and his scapegrace adven- 
tures ? " 

Bacon's Essays are published. 

The following are copyright entries this year : 

" 1597, 29 August. Andrew Wise. — Entred for his 
copie, by appoyntment from Mr. Warden Man, The 
Tragedye of Richard the Second." 

" 1597, 20 Octobr. Andrewe Wise. — Entred for his 
copie, vnder thandes of Mr. Barlowe and Mr. warden 
Man, The tragedie of kinge Richard the Third, with the 
death of the duke of Clarence." 

"1597-8 (1597, Annoque R. R. Eliz. 40), xxv die 
Februarij. Andrew Wyse. — Entred for his copie, vnder 
thandes of Mr. Dix and Mr. Warden Man, a booke inti- 
tuled The historye of Henry the iiij.th with his battaile at 
Shrewsburye against Henry Hottspurre of the Xorthe, 
with the conceipted mirthe of Sir John Falstoff." 

1598. February 4. A manuscript return of this 
date, containing the names of the holders of corn 
in the Chapel Street Ward, in which New Place is 
situated, has the name of " Wm. Shackespere " as 
the owner of ten quarters of corn. " This is the 
earliest notice of him in the capacity of a house- 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 77 

holder. ... In the earlier years of his occupancy 
of New Place he arranged a fruit orchard in his gar- 
den." The Corporation this year repaired Clopton 
bridge, and obtained from the dramatist a load of 
stone ; the manuscript record is in these words : 
" Paid to Mr. Shaxspere for on lod of ston, xdP 

" There is no genuine sketch of New Place and 
no view or engraving of Stratford as it appeared in 
the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries." The 
earliest sketch that we now have w^as taken about 
the year 1715. 

" Many enthusiasts of these times who visit Stratf ord- 
on-Avon are under the delusion that they behold a locality 
which recalls the days of the great dramatist ; but with 
the exception of a few diffused buildings, scarcely one of 
which is precisely in its original condition, there is no 
resemblance between the present town and the Shake- 
spearean borough, — the latter with its medieval and 
Elizabethan buildings, its' crosses, its numerous barns 
and thatched hovels, its water-mills, its street bridges and 
rivulets, its mud walls, its dunghills and fetid ditches, its 
unpaved walks and its wooden-spired church, with the 
common fields reaching nearly to the gardens of the 
birthplace. 

" A former inhabitant of Stratford-on-Avon, writing in 
the year 1759, asserts that ' the unanimous tradition of 
this neighborhood is that by the uncommon bounty of the 
Earl of Southampton he [Shakespeare] was enabled to pur- 
chase houses and land at Stratford.' According to Rowe, 
' there is one instance so singular in the magnificence of 
this patron of Shakespeare's that if I had not been 
assured that the story was handed down by Sir. William 
D'Avenant, who was probably very well acquainted with 
his affairs, I should not have ventured to have inserted 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 



that my Lord Southampton at one time gave him a thou- 
sand pounds to enable him to go through with a purchase 
which he heard he had a mind to.' A comparison of 
these versions would indicate that if the anecdote is based 
on truth, the gift was made on the occasion of the pur- 
chase of New Place in 1597 ; and it is probable that it 
was larger than the sum required for that object, although 
the amount named by Rowe must be an exaggeration. 
Unless the general truth of the story be accepted, it is 
difficult to believe that Shakespeare could have obtained 
so early in his career the ample means he certainly pos- 
sessed in that and the following year. The largest emol- 
uments that could have been derived from his professional 
avocations would hardly have sufficed to have accom- 
plished such a result, and the necessity of forwarding 
continual remittances to Stratford-on-Avon must not be 
overlooked." (H.-P. i. 144, 145.) 

" Love's Labor Lost " was published early in this 
year with the following titlepage : "A Pleasant 
Conceited Cornedie called Lones labors lost. As 
it was presented before her Highnes this last 
Christmas. Newly corrected and augmented by 
W. Shakespere. Imprinted at London by W. W. 
for Cutbert Burby. 1598." 

The following is the copyright entry for this 
year : — 

" 1598 (Anno 40 Regine Elizabethe), xxij. Julij. James 
Robertes. — Entred for his copie, vnder the handes of 
bothe the wardens, a booke of the marchaunt of Yenyce, 
or otherwise called the Jewe of Venyce; Prouided that yt 
bee not prynted by the said James Robertes, or anye other 
whatsoeuer, without lycence first had from the Right 
honorable the lord chamberlen." 






WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 79 

" From the Third Part of Alba, the Months Minde of a 
Melancholy Lover, divided into three parts : By R.T. 1 
Gentleman. At London. Printed by Felix Kyngston 
for Matthew Lownes. 1598. A very small 8vo. 

" ' Loves Labor Lost/ — I once did see a play 
Y-cleped so, so called to my paine, 
Which I to heare to my small joy did stay, 
Giving attendance on my froward dame ; 
My misgiving minde presaging to me ill, 
Yet was I drawne to see it 'gainst my will. 

" This play no play but plague was unto me, 

For there I lost the love I liked most ; 

And what to others seemde a jest to be, 

I that (in earnest) found unto my cost. 
To every one (save me) 'twas comicall, 
Whilst tragick-like to me it did befall. 

" Each actor plaid in cunning wise his part, 
But chiefly those entrapt in Cupids snare ; 
Yet all was fained, 'twas not from the hart ; 
They seemde to grieve, but yet they felt no care. 

'Twas I that grief e (indeed) did beare in brest ; 

The others did but make a show in jest. 

" Yet neither faining theirs nor my meere truth 
Could make her once so much as for to smile ; 
Whilst she (despite of pitie milde and ruth) 
Did sit as skorning of my woes the while. 
Thus did she sit to see Love lose his Love, 
Like hardned rock that force nor power can move." 

The following extracts are from a treatise entitled 
" A comparative Discourse of our English poets with 
the Greeke, Latine, and Italian poets/' which is near 
the end of a thick little volume called "Palladis 
Tamia. Wits Treasury, being the Second Part of 

i Robert Tofte. 



80 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

Wits Commonwealth. By Francis Meres, Maister 
of Artes of both Universities. Vivitur Ingenio, 
caetera mortis erunt. At London : Printed by P. 
Short for Cuthbert Burbie, and are to be solde at 
his shop at the Eoyall Exchange, 1598." 

" As the Greeke tongue is made famous and eloquent 
by Homer, Hesiod, Euripides, Aeschilus, Sophocles, Pin- 
darus, Phocylides, and Aristophanes ; and the Latine 
tongue by Yirgill, Ovid, Horace, Silius Italicus, Lucanus, 
Lucretius, Ausonius, and Claudianus, — so the English 
tongue is mightily enriched, and gorgeouslie invested in 
rare ornaments and resplendent abiliments, by sir Philip 
Sidney, Spencer, Daniel, Drayton, Warner, Shakespeare, 
Mar low, and Chapman. 

" As the soule of Euphorbus was thought to live in 
Pythagoras, so the sweete wittie soule of Ovid lives in 
mellifluous & hony-tongued Shakespeare : witnes his 
Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred Sonnets 
among his private friends, &c. 

"As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for 
Comedy and Tragedy among the Latines, so Shakespeare 
among ye English is the most excellent in both kinds for 
the stage. For Comedy, witnes his Getleme of Verona, 
his Errors, his Love labors lost, his Love labours wonne, 
his Midsummers night dreame, & his Merchant of Venice ; 
for Tragedy, his Richard the 2, Richard the 3, Henry the 
4, King John, Titus Andronicus, and his Romeo and 
Juliet. 

" As Epius Stolo said that the Muses would speake with 
Plautus' tongue if they would speak Latin, so I say that 
the Muses would speak with Shakespeare's fine-filed 
phrase if they would speake English. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 81 

" As Ovid saith of his worke, — 

' Jamq. opus exegi, quod nee Jovis ira, nee ignis, 
Nee poterit ferrum, nee edax abolere vetustas ; ' 

and as Horace saith of his, l Exegi mormmentu sere peren- 
nius ; Regaliq ; situ pyramidu altius ; Quod non imber 
edax ; Non Aquilo irhpotens possit diruere ; aut innume- 
rabilis annorum series, &c. fuga temporum, — so say I 
severally of sir Philip Sidney's, Spencer's, Daniel's, 
Drayton's, Shakespeare's, and Warners workes. 

" As Pindarus, Anacreon, and Callimachus among the 
. Greekes, and Horace and Catullus among the Latines, 
are the best Lyrick Poets, — so in this faculty the best 
among our Poets are Spencer (who excelleth in all kinds) 
Daniel, Drayton, Shakespeare, Bretto. 

"As . . ., — so these are our best for Tragedie : the 
Lorde Buckhurst, Doctor Leg of Cambridge, Doctor Edes 
of Oxforde, maister Edward Ferris, the Authour of the 
Mirrour for Magistrates, Marlow, Peele, Watson, Kid, 
Shakespeare, Drayton, Chapman, Decker, and Benjamin 
Johnson. 

" As . . ., — so the best for Comedy amongst us bee 
Edward Earle of Oxforde, Doctor Gager of Oxforde, 
Maister Rowley, once a rare Scholler of learned Pem- 
brooke Hall in Cambridge ; Maister Edwardes, one of 
her Majesties Chappell ; eloquent and wittie John Lilly, 
Lodge, Gascoyne, Greene, Shakespeare, Thomas Nash, 
Thomas Heywood, Anthony Mundye our best plotter, 
Chapman, Porter, Wilson, Hathway, and Henry Chettle. 

" . . ., — so these are the most passionate among us to 
bewaile and bemoane the perplexities of Love : Henry 
Howard, Earle of Surrey ; sir Thomas Wyat the elder, 
sir Francis Brian, sir Philip Sidney, sir Walter Rawley, 

6 



82 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

sir Edward Dyer, Spencer, Daniel, Drayton, Shakespeare, 
Whetstone, Gascoyne, Samnell Page, sometimes fell owe 
of Corpus Christie Colledge in Oxford, Churchyard, 
Bret ton. 

" Michael Drayton (quern toties honoris & am oris causa 
nomino) among schollers, souldiours, Poets, and all sorts 
of people, is helde for a man of vertuous disposition, 
honest conversation, and wel-governed cariage, which is 
almost miraculous among good wits in these declining 
and corrupt times, when there is nothing but rogery in 
villanous man, 1 and when cheating and craftines is 
counted the cleanest wit and soundest wisedome." 

In this year Richard Barnefield's "A remem- 
brance of some English Poets " was published, 
containing these lines : — 

" And Shakespeare thou, whose hony-flowing Yaine 
(Pleasing the World) thy Praises doth obtaine. 
Whose Venus and whose Lucrece (sweete and chaste) 
Thy Name in fames immortall Booke have plac't, — 

Live ever you, at least in Fame live ever ! 

Well may the Bodye dye, but Fame dies never." 

John Marston's " The Scourge of Villanie " was 
published this year. The following is copied 
from it : — 

" A hall, a hall! 
Roome for the spheres ! the orbs celestiall 2 
Will daunee Kemps jigge ; they 'le revel with neate jumps ; 
A worthy poet hath put on their pumps. 

Luscus, what 's plaid to-day ? Faith, now I know 
I set thy lips abroach, from whence doth flowe 

i 1 Hen. IV. ii. 3. 

2 A parody on two lines in Romeo and Juliet. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 83 

Naught but pure Juliet and Romeo. 

Say who acts best, — Drusus or Roscio ? l 

Now I have him, that nere of ought did speake 

But when of playes or players he did treat, 

Hath made a commonplace booke out of playes, 

And speaks in print : at least what ere he saies 

Is warranted by curtaine plaudities. 

If ere you heard him courting Lesbias eyes, 

Say (curteous sir), speakes he not movingly 

From out some new pathetique tragedy ? 

He writes, he railes, he jests, he courts (what not? ), 

And all from out his huge long-scraped stock 

Of well-penn'd Plays." 

The same poem contains the following lines : — 

" A man, a man, a kingdome for a man ! 
Why, how now, currish, man Athenian 1 
Thou Cynick dog, see'st not the streets do swarme 
With troups of men % " 

Two editions of the First Part of "Henry the 
Fourth " were published this year. Six editions 
were published in the author's lifetime. 

In a private letter from Toby Matthew to Dudley 
Carleton, written in September, 1598, the writer 
says of some military officers : " Well, honour 
prickes them on ; and the world thinckes that 
honour will quickly prick them of againe." Malone 
says : " In some tract, of which I forgot to preserve 
the title, Hemmings is said to have been the 
original performer of Falstaff." Mr. Phillipps 
says : " The inimitable humour of Falstaff was 
appreciated at the Court as heartily as by the public. 
The Queen was so taken with the delineation of 

1 Drusus is Shakespeare, and Roscio is the sobriquet of Burbage. 

Ingleby. 



84 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

that marvellous character in the two parts of 
' Henry the Fourth/ that she commanded Shake- 
speare to write a third part, in which the fat knight 
should be exhibited as a victim to the power of 
love." He was so exhibited in the " Merry Wives 
of Windsor." 

The editions of the dramatist's poems and plays 
published this year are given below : — 

" Lvcrece. At London : Printed by P. S. for Iohn Har- 
rison. 1598." 

" The Hystorie of Henrie the Fourth." 

"A Pleasant Conceited Comedie called Loues labors 
lost. As it was presented before her Higtmes this last 
Christmas. Newly corrected and augmented By W. 
Shakespere. Imprinted at London by W. W. for Cutbert 
Burby. 1598." 

" The Tragedie of King Richard the second. As it 
hath beene publikely acted by the Right Honourable the 
Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. By William Shake- 
speare. London : Printed by Valentine Simmes for 
Andrew Wise, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules 
churchyard at the signe of the Angel. 1598." 

" The Tragedie of King Richard the third. Contein- 
ing his treacherous plots against his brother Clarence ; the 
pitiful murther of his innocent Nephewes ; his tyrannicall 
vsurpation ; with the whole course of his detested life and 
most deserued death. As it hath beene lately Acted by 
the Right honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his ser- 
uants. By William Shakespeare. London : Printed by 
Thomas Creede, for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules 
Church-yard, at the signe of the Angell. 1598." 

" The History of Henrie the Fovrth ; With the battell 
at Shrewsburie betweene the King and Lord Henry 
Percy, surnamed Henrie Hotspur of the North. With 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 85 

the humorous conceits of Sir Iohn Falstalffe. At London : 
Printed by P. S. for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules 
Churchyard, at the signe of the Angell. 1598." 

January 24, 1597-98. Abraham Sturley writes 
a letter to his brother-in-law, Eichard Quiney, in 
which a reference is made to Shakespeare's con- 
templated purchase of land at Shottery. Quiney is 
then in London and the poet also. The long letter 
begins as follows : — 

" Most loving and belovedd in the Lord, — in plaine 
Englishe we remember u in the Lord, and ourselves unto 
u. I would write nothinge unto u nowe, but come home. 
I prai God send u comfortabli home. This is one speciall 
remembrance from ur father's motion. Itt seemeth bi 
him that our countriman, Mr. Shaksper, is willinge to dis- 
burse some monei upon some od yarde land or other att 
Shotterie or neare about us ; he thinketh it a veri fitt 
patterne to move him to deale in the matter of our tithes. 
Bi the instruccions u can geve him thearof, and bi the 
frendes he can make therefore, we thinke it a f aire marke 
for him to shoote att, and not unpossible to hitt. It 
obtained would advance him in deede, and would do us 
muche good. Hoc movere, et quantum in te est per- 
movere, ne necligas, hoc enim et sibi et nobis maximi erit 
momenti. Hie labor, hie opus esset eximie et gloria? et 
laudis sibi. U shall understande, brother, that our neigh- 
bours are growne with the wantes they feele throughe 
the dearnes of corne, which heare is beionde all other 
countries that I can heare of deare and over deare, 
malecontent." 

A letter written by Adrian Quiney to his son 
Eichard, in London, in 1598 or 1599, contains this 
passage : — 



86 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

" Yff yow bargen with Wm. Sha. . . or receve money 
therf or, brynge youre money homme that yow maye ; 
and see howe knite stockynges be sold ; ther ys gret 
byinge of them at Aysshome. Edward Wheat and 
Harrye, youre brother man, were both at Evyshome thys 
daye senet, and, as I harde, bestowe 20U ther in knyt 
Jiosse ; wherefore I thynke yow maye doo good, yff yow 
can have money." 

November 4, 1598. Abraham Sturley writing to 
Eichard Quiney, begins with this : — 

"All health, happines of suites, and welfare be multi- 
plied unto u and ur labours in God our Father bi Christ 
our Lord. Ur letter of the 25. of October came to mi 
handes the laste of the same att night per Grenwai, which 
imported a stai of suites bi Sr. Ed. Gr. advise, untiil &c, 
and that onli u should followe on for tax and sub. 
presentli, and allso ur travell and hinderance of answere 
therein bi ur longe travell and thaffaires of the courte ; 
and that our countriman Mr. Wm. Shak. would procure us 
ruonei, which I will like of as I shall heare when and 
wheare and howe ; and I prai let not go that occasion if 
it mai sorte to ani indifferent con die ions. Allso that if 
monei might be had for 30 or 40/., a lease, &c, might be 
procured." 

Mr. Phillipps believes, with Pope, that Shake- 
speare was investing money to provide against 
future want. He not only advanced money, but 
negotiated loans through other capitalists. Eichard 
Quiney applied to the dramatist for the loan of 
thirty pounds. " Not a single fragment of any of 
the poet's own letters has yet been discovered, and 
the following is the only one addressed to him 
which is known to exist." This is the address : 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 87 

" To my loveinge good ffrend and contreymann Mr. 
Wm. Shackespere deliver thees." 

And this is a copy of the letter : — 

Loveinge contreyman, — I am bolde of yow, as of a 
ffrende, craveinge yowr helpe with xxx. II. vppon Mr. 
Bushells and my securytee, or Mr. Myttons with me. Mr. 
Rosswell is nott come to London as yeate, and I have 
especiall cawse. Yow shall ffrende me mnche in helpeing 
me out of all the debettes I owe in London, I thancke 
God, and muche quiet my mynde, which wolde nott be 
indebeted. I am nowe towardes the Cowrte, in hope of 
answer for the dispatche of my buysenes. Yow shall 
nether loase creddytt nor monney by me, the Lorde 
wyllinge ; and nowe butt per s wade yowrselfe soe, as I hope, 
and yow shall nott need to feare butt with all hartie 
thanckefullenes I wyll holde my tyme and content yowr 
ffrende, and yf we bargaine farther, yow shal be the paie- 
master yowrselfe. My tyme biddes me hastene to an 
ende, and soe I commit thys [to] yowr care, and hope of 
yowr helpe. I feare I shall nott be backe thys night 
ffrom the Cowrte. Haste. The Lorde be with yow and 
with vs all, Amen ! ffrom the Bell in Carter Lane, the 25 
October, 1598. 

Yowrs in all kyn denes, 

Ryc. Quyney. 

Sturley writes to Quiney, November 4, — 

" Your letter of the 25th of October came to my hands 
tho last of the same at night per Greenway, which 
imported that our countryman, Mr. William Shakespeare, 
would procure us money, which I will like of as I 
shal hear when and where and how ; and I pray let 
not go that occasion, if it may sort to any indifferent 
conditions." 



88 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

Mr. Phillipps says that " the Green way nere 
mentioned was the Stratford carrier, — the good 
people of that town being well contented in those 
days if they received letters from the metropolis 
once in a week." 

The " Merchant of Venice " was played in London 
in or before the month of July, 1598. 

" One of the most interesting of the recorded events of 
Shakespeare's life occurred in the present year. In 
September, 1598, Ben Jonson's famous comedy of 6 Every 
Man in his Humor ' was produced by the Lord Chamber- 
lain's company, and there is every probability that both 
writer and manager were indebted for its acceptance to 
the sagacity of the great dramatist, who was one of the 
leading actors on the occasion. ' His acquaintance with 
Ben Jonson,' observes Bowe, i began with a remarkable 
piece of humanity and good nature. Mr. Jonson, who 
was at that time altogether unknown to the world, had 
offered one of his plays to the players in order to have it 
acted, and the persons into whose hands it was put, after 
having turned it carelessly and superciliously over, were 
just upon returning it to him with an ill-natured answer 
that it would be of no service to their company, when 
Shakespeare luckily cast his eye upon it, and found some- 
thing so well in it as to engage him first to read it through, 
and afterwards to recommend Mr. Jonson and his writings 
to the public.' The statement that rare Ben was then ■ 
absolutely new to literature is certainly erroneous, how- 
ever ignorant the Burbages or their colleagues may have 
been of his primitive efforts ; but he was in a state of 
indigence, rendering the judgment on his manuscript of 
vital consequence, and the services of a friendly advocate 
of inestimable value. He had been engaged in dramatic 
work for Henslowe some months before the appearance of 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 89 

the new comedy, but about that time there seems to have 
been a misunderstanding between them, — the latter 
alluding to Jonson simply as a brick-layer, not as one of 
his company, in his record of the unfortunate duel with 
Gabriel. There had been, in all probability, a theatrical 
disturbance resulting in the last-named event, and in 
Ben's temporary secession from the Rose. Then there 
are the words of Jonson himself, who, unbiassed by the 
recollection that he had been defeated in at all events one 
literary skirmish with the great dramatist, speaks of him 
in language that would appear hyperbolical had it not 
been sanctioned by a feeling of gratitude for a definite 
and important service : 1 1 loved the man, and do honour 
his memory on this side idolatry, as much as any.' This 
was a personal idolatry, not one solely in reference to his 
works, moderately adverse criticisms upon which im- 
mediately follow the generous panegyric. It may, then, 
fairly be said that the evidences at our disposal favour, on 
the whole, the general credibility of the anecdote narrated 
by Rowe." (H.-P. i. 170.) 

In the same month, September, the " Palladis Ta- 
mia " of Francis Meres appeared. This writer was. 
born in Lincolnshire, and educated at Cambridge. 
He first mentions Shakespeare's sonnets, — " his 
sugared Sonnets among his private friends." 

1599. The earliest notice of the " Merry Wives 
of Windsor" is an entry on the register of the 
Stationers' Company, in January, 1602, when a 
defective copy was issued ; but it probably was 
written in 1599, and produced before the death of 
Shallow's prototype, Sir Thomas Lucy. This play, 
and the Second Part of "Henry the Fourth," 
include scenes, says Mr. Phillipps, " that could not 



90 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 



have been written exactly in their present form if 
the great dramatist had not entertained an acute 
grudge against Sir Thomas Lucy. Stratford-on- 
Avon and Henley-in-Arden are towns that are 
faintly veiled under the names of Stamford and 
Hinckley. Hence also the direct and practically 
undisguised banter of the Lucys in the "Merry 
Wives of Windsor," for no one in Warwickshire 
could possibly have mistaken the allusion to the 
luces, the fishes otherwise termed pikes, that 
held so conspicuous a position in the family 
shield." 

In May or June the play of " Henry the Fifth " 
was completed. It contains a compliment to the 
Earl of Essex, who left London on his expedition 
to Ireland in the month of March. Lord South- 
ampton was General of the Horse in the Earl's 
army. The play was produced at the Curtain 
Theatre during the summer. The character of 
Pistol was relished by audiences, and the play was 
sometimes known under the title of " Ancient 
Pistol." Breton's "Poste with a Packet of Madde 
Letters," 1602, says : " It is not your hustie rustie 
can make me afraid of your bigge lookes, for I saw 
the plaie of ' Ancient Pistoll/ where a craking 
coward was well cudgeled for his knavery ; your 
railing is so neere the rascall that I am almost 
ashamed to bestow so good a name as the rogue 
uppon you." Spurious editions of the play were 
published about the year 1600, and in 1602 and 
1608. 






WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 91 

This year the poet made a renewed attempt to 
obtain a grant of coat-armour to his father. 

" A publisher named Jaggard, who in 1599 attempted to 
form a collection of new Shakespearean poems, did not 
manage to obtain more than two of the sonnets. The 
words of Meres, and the insignificant result of Jaggard's 
efforts when viewed in connexion with the nature of these 
strange poems, lead to the inference that some of them 
were written in clusters, and others as separate exercises, 
either being contributions made by their writer to the 
albums of his friends, probably no two of the latter being 
favoured with identical compositions." (H.-P. i. 173.) 

Jaggard's tiny volume was issued under the 
fanciful title of the " Passionate Pilgrime. By W. 
Shakespeare." Mr. Phillipps says that " the entire 
publication bears marks of an attempted fraud ; 
and it may well be doubted if any of its untraced 
contents, with perhaps three exceptions, justify the 
announcement of the titlepage." In the edition of 
1612 Jaggard cancelled the titlepage containing 
Shakespeare's name, after being requested to do so 
by Thomas Heywood. That writer said, in 1612 : 
" I must necessarily insert a manifest injury done 
me in that worke by taking the two Epistles of 
Paris to Helen, and Helen to Paris, and printing 
them in a lesse volume under the name of another, 
which may put the world in opinion I might steal 
them from him ; and hee, to doe himself e right, hath 
since published them in his owne name ; but as I 
must acknowledge my lines not worthy his patron- 
age under whom he hath publisht them, so the 
author I know much offended with M. Jaggard that 



92 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

(altogether unknowne to him) presumed to make so 
bold with his name." 

^ In the Christmas holidays of 1598-1599, three plays, 
one of them hi all probability having been the ' Merry 
Wives of Windsor,' were acted by Shakespeare's company 
before the Qneen at Whitehall, after which they do not 
appear to have performed at Conrt until the following 
December, on the 26th of which month they were at 
Richmond Palace. The poet's distinguished friend, Lord 
Southampton, was in London in the autumn of this year, 
and no doubt favoured more than one theatre with his 
attendance. In a letter dated October the 11th, 1599, his 
lordship is alluded to as spending his time ' merrily in 
going to plays every day.' " (H.-P. i. 176.) 

The following poems and plays are registered 
this year : — 

"Yenvs and Adonis. Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi 
nanus Apollo ; Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua. 
Imprinted at London for William Leake, dwelling in 
Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Greyhound. 1599." 

" The most excellent and lamentable Tragedie of 
Romeo and Iuliet. Xewly corrected, augmented, and 
amended : As it hath bene sundry times publiquely acted, 
by the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his 
seruants. London : Printed by Thomas Creede for Cuth- 
bert Burby, and are to be sold at his shop neare the 
Exchange. 1599." 

" The Passionate Pilgrime. By W. Shakespeare. At 
London : Printed for W. laggard, and are to be sold by W. 
Leake at the Greyhound in Paules Churchyard. 1599." 

" The History of Henry the Fovrth ; With the battell 
at Shrewsburie betweene the King and Lord Henry Percy, 
surnamed Henry Hotspur of the Xorth. With the 
humorous conceits of Sir Iohn Falstalife. Xewly cor- 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 93 

rected by W. Shake-speare. At London : Printed by S. 
S. for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at 
the signe of the Angell. 1599." 

In Ben Jonson's " Every Man out of his Humor " 
the expressions occur, "this is a kinsman of Justice 
Silence/' and "as fat as Sir John Fallstaffe." 

1600. Thomas Pavier, a bookseller, published 
this year a play called the " First Part of the Life 
of Sir John Oldcastle," and ascribed it to " William 
Shakespeare." The record is preserved which 
proves that other persons wrote the play. 

The Burbages erect the Globe theatre in South- 
wark. It was, says Mr. Phillipps, a " circular 
building amidst the trees in the open space below 
the thickly-populated fringe of houses known as the 
Bank-side, and was about two hundred yards from 
the margin of the river. A little further on was 
the Bear Garden. . . . The building was constructed 
mainly of wood, and w T as partially roofed with 
thatch ; but the larger portion of the interior was 
open to the sky. . . . There were no scenic effects. 
Currents of air engendered by the open roof rendered 
a performance by candle-light an impossibility. . . . 
The remotest spectator could hardly have been 
distant more than a dozen yards from the front of 
the stage. . . . Intersecting the stage were two 
curtains of arras, — one running along near the 
back, and the other about the centre, either being 
drawn as occasion required." 

Mr. Phillipps also says that " Shakespeare's 
company acted before Queen Elizabeth at Richmond 



94 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

Palace on Twelfth Night and Shrove Sunday, 1600, 
and at Whitehall on the 26th of December. On 
March the 6th they were at Somerset House, and 
there performed, before Lord Hunsdon and some 
foreign ambassadors, another drama on the subject 
of Olclcastle. A few weeks after the last occur- 
rence, the poet, who was then in London, brought 
an action against one John Clayton to recover the 
sum of £ 7, and duly succeeded in obtaining a ver- 
dict in his favour." 

The Second Part of "Henry the Fourth" was 
published in August. Probably " As You Like It " 
was produced in the summer of this year. " One 
of its ditties," says Mr. Phillipps, "was set to 
music by Thomas Morley, an eminent composer of 
the day, who published it, with some others of a 
cognate description, in his ' First Booke of Ayres, 
or Little Short Songs/ — a small, thin folio volume 
•printed at London in the same year, 1600." 

Oldys says, — 

" One of Shakespeare's younger brothers, who lived 
to a good old age, even some years, as I compute, 
after the restoration of King Charles the Second, would 
in his younger days come to London to visit his brother 
Will, as he called him, and be a spectator of him 
as an actor in some of his own plays. This custom, as 
his brother's fame enlarged, and his drain at ick entertain- 
ments grew the greatest support of our principal if not of 
all our theatres, he continued, it seems, so long after his 
brother's death as even to the latter end of his own life. 
The curiosity at this time of the most noted actors to 
learn something from him of his brother, &c, they justly 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 95 

held him in the highest veneration ; and it may be well 
believed, as there was besides a kinsman and descendant 
of the family, who was then a celebrated actor among 
them, this opportunity made them greedily inquisitive 
into every little circumstance, more especially in his 
dramatick character, which his brother could relate of 
him. But he, it seems, was so stricken in years, and 
possibly his memory so weakened with infirmities, which 
might make him the easier pass for a man of weak 
intellects, that he could give them but little light into 
their enquiries ; and all that could be recollected from him 
of his brother Will in that station was the faint, general, 
and almost lost ideas he had of having once seen him act 
a part in one of his own comedies, wherein, being to per- 
sonate a decrepit old man, he wore a long beard, and 
appeared so weak and drooping and unable to walk, 
that he was forced to be supported and carried by another 
person to a table, at which he was seated among some 
company who were eating, and one of them sung a song 
[the part of Adam in < As You Like It ']." 

" The earliest notice of the comedy of : Much Ado 
about Nothing/ " says Mr. Phillipps, " occurs in 
the entry in which we also first hear of i As You 
Like It.' Its attempted publication was stopped 
by an application made to the Stationers' Company 
on or before August 4, 1600 ; but on the 23d of the 
same month Wise and Aspley succeeded in obtain- 
ing a license." 

Kemp was the original representative of Dog- 
berry, and Cowley of Verges. Kobert Armin, a 
favorite clown, succeeded Kemp. 

Towards the close of this year, Shakespeare 
wrote a poem, the "Turtle and Phoenix/' which 
was published the next year by Robert Chester, 



96 WILLIAM SH4KESPEAKE. 

with a poem called " Love's Martyr," or Rosalinds 
Complaint/' by Chester, and other " poeticall 
essaies, . . . done by the best and chief est of our 
modern writers, with their names subscribed to 
their particular works, never before extant," as the 
titlepage said. The name subscribed to the " Turtle 
and Phoenix" is "William Shake-speare." 

The following editions are recorded this year : 

" The First Part of the Contention betwixt the two 
famous houses of Yorke and Lancaster ; with the death of 
the good Duke Humphrey, and the banishment and death 
of the Duke of Suffolke, and the tragicall end of the prowd 
Cardinall of Winchester; with the notable rebellion of 
lacke Cade, and the Duke of Yorke's first clayme to the 
crowne. London : Printed by W. W. for Thomas Mil- 
lington, and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint 
Peter's Church in Cornewall. 1600." 

" The First part of the Contention betwixt the two 
famous houses of Yorke and Lancaster ; with the death of 
the good Duke Humphrey, and the banishment and death 
of the Duke of Suffolke, and the Tragical end of the prowd 
Cardinall of Winchester ; with the notable Rebellion of 
lacke Cade, and the Duke of Yorke's first clayme to the 
Crowne. London : Printed by Valentine Simmes for 
Thomas Millington, and are to be sold at his shop vnder 
S. Peter's church in Cornewall. 1600." 

"Lvcrece. London: Printed by I. H. for John Hari- 
son. 1600." 

" The true Tragedie of Richarde Duke of Yorke, and 
the death of good King Henrie the sixt ; with the whole 
contention betweene the two Houses Lancaster and Yorke : 
as it was sundry times acted by the Right Honourable 
the Earle of Pembrooke his seruantes. Printed at 
London by W. W. for Thomas Millington, and are to b3 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 97 

sold at his shoppe vnder Saint Peter's Church in Corne- 
wall. 1600." 

" The Cronicle History of Henry the fift ; with his 
battell fought at Agin Court in France ; together with 
Auntient Pistoll : as it hath bene sundry times playd by 
the Right honorable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. 
London : Printed by Thomas Creede for Tho. Millington 
and Iohn Busby, and are to be sold at his house in Carter 
Lane, next the Powle head. 1600." 

" The Second part of Henrie the fourth, continuing to 
his death, and coronation of Henrie the fift ; with the 
humours of sir Iohn Falstaffe, and swaggering Pistoll : as 
it hath been sundrie times publikely acted by the right 
honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Writ- 
ten by William Shakespeare. London : Printed by V. S. 
for Andrew Wise and William Aspley. 1600." 

" The Second part of Henrie the fourth, continuing to 
his death, and coronation of Henrie the fift ; with the 
humours of sir Iohn Falstaffe, &c. [This play contained 
two more leaves than the former]." 

" Much adoe about Nothing : as it hath been sundrie 
times publikely acted by the right honourable the Lord 
Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by William Shake- 
speare. London : Printed by V. S. for Andrew Wise and 
William Aspley. 1600." 

" A Midsommer night's dreame : as it hath been sundry 
times publikely acted by the Right honourable the Lord 
Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by William Shake- 
speare. Imprinted at London for Thomas Fisher, and 
are to be soulde at his shoppe, at the Signe of the White 
Hart, in Fleete-streete. 1600." 

" The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice ; with 
the extreme cruelty of Shylocke the lew towards the saide 
Merchant in cutting a iust pound of his flesh, and the 
obtaining of Portia by the choyse of three Caskets. Writ- 
ten by W. Shakespeare. Printed by J. Roberts. 1600." 

7 



98 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

" A Midsommer night's dreame : as it hath beene 
sundry times publikely acted by the Right Honourable 
the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by 
William Shakespeare. Printed by lames Eoberts. 1600." 

" The most lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus 
Andronicus : as it hath sundry times beene playde by the 
Right Honourable the Earle of Pembrooke, the Earle of 
Darbie, the Earle of Sussex, and the Lorde Chamberlaine, 
theyr Seruants. At London : Printed by I. R. for 
Edward White, and are to bee solde at his shoppe, at 
the little North doore of Paules, at the signe of the 
Gun. 1600." 

" The most excellent Historie of the Merchant of 
Venice ; with the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the Iewe 
towards the sayd Merchant in cutting a iust pound of 
his flesh, and the obtayning of Portia by the choyse of 
three chests : as it hath beene diuers times acted by the 
Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by William 
Shakespeare. London : Printed by I. R. for Thomas 
Heyes, and are to be sold in Paule's Churchyard, at the 
signe of the Greene Dragon. 1600." 

August 11. John Bodenham enters at Stationers' 
Hall a collection of poetical extracts entitled " Bel- 
vedere ; Or, the Garden of the Muses. Imprinted 
at London." It contains the following passage : 

" Now that every one may be fully satisfied concerning 
this Garden, that no one man doth assume to him-selfe 
the praise thereof, or can arrogate to his owne deserving 
those things which have been derived from so many rare 
and ingenious spirits, — I have set down both how, 
whence, and where these flowres had their first springing, 
till thus they were drawne togither into the Muses 
Garden, that every ground may challenge his owne, each 
plant his particular, and no one be injured in the justice 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 99 

of his merit. . . . Edmund Spencer ; Henry Constable, 
esquier ; Samuell Daniell ; Thomas Lodge, Doctor of 
Physicke ; Thomas Watson ; Michaell Drayton ; John 
Davies ; Thomas Hudson ; Henrie Locke, esquier ; John 
Marstone ; Christopher Marlow ; Benj anion Johnson ; 
William Shakspeare ; Thomas Churchyard, esquier ; 
Thomas Nash ; Thomas Kidde ; George Peele ; Robert 
Greene ; Josuah Sylvester ; Nicholas Breton ; Gervase 
Markham ; Thomas Storer ; Robert Wilmot ; Christopher 
Middleton ; Richard Barnefield : these being moderne and 
extant poets that have liv'd togither ; from many of their 
extant workes, and some kept in privat." 

The following are copyright entries this year : 

" 1600, 4 Augusti. As yow like yt, a booke ; Henry the 
Fift, a booke ; The Commedie of Muche A doo about 
nothinge, a booke ; — to be staled." l 

" 1600, 14 Augusti. Thomas Pavyer, — entred for his 
copyes, by direction of Mr. White, warden, vnder his 
hand wrytinge, these copyes folio winge, beinge thinges 
formerlye printed and sett over to the sayd Thomas 
Pavyer ; viz. . . . The historye of Henrye the v.th, with 
the battell of Agencourt. ,, 

" 1600, 23 Augusti. Andrewe Wyse, William Aspley, 
— entred for their copies, vnder the handes of the 
wardens, twoo bookes, the one called Muche adoo about 
Nothinge, thother the second parte of the history of 
Kinge Henry the iiij.th; with the humors of Sir John 
Fallstaff. Wrytten by Mr. Shakespere." 

"1600, 8 October. Tho. Fyssher, — entred for his 
copie, vnder the handes of Mr. Rodes and the wardens, a 
booke called A mydsommer nighte's dreame." 

1 In the original the last three words are on the side of a 
bracket, denoting that they refer to all the plays here 
mentioned. 



100 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 



" 1600, 28 October. Tho. Haies, — entred for his copie, 
vnder the handes of the wardens and by consent of Mr. 
Robertes, a booke called the booke of the Merchant of 
Venyce." 

There is a letter in the Public Record Office, 
probably written in 1600, by Sir Charles Percy, in 
which allusion is made to "Justice Silence, or 
Justice Shallow." Sir Charles was the man who 
bespoke the play of Richard II. at the Globe on 
Saturday, February 7, 1601. He accompanied 
Essex in his fatal ride into the City. 

Samuel Nicholson, in his "Acolastus," has 
adapted many lines from "Venus and Adonis," 
"Lucrece," and "Henry VI." 

Between 1600 and 1610, the Countess of South- 
ampton wrote to the Earl of Southampton : " Al 
the nu.es I can send you that I thinke wil make you 
mery is that I reade in a letter from London that 
Sir John Falstaf is by his Mrs. Dame Pintpot made 
father of a godly milers thum, a boye thats all 
heade and veri litel body ; but this is a secret." 

1601. The Earl of Essex conspiracy begins by 
the performance at the Globe theatre, by the Lord 
Chamberlain's servants (Shakespeare's company), 
on the 7th of Eebruary, of " Henry the Eourth," a 
" play of the deposing and killing of King Richard 
the Second." The conspirators selected the play, 
and agreed to pay forty shillings to the actors. 
The insurrection prematurely followed the perform- 
ance of the play. The actors had no previous 
knowledge of the conspiracy. They performed 






WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 101 

before Queen Elizabeth at Richmond Palace, 
February 24, the evening before the death of Essex. 
Lord Southampton, Shakespeare's patron, was a 
bosom friend of Essex. 

The poet's father was buried at Stratford on the 
8th of September. 

" The Queen kept her Court at Whitehall in the Christ- 
mas of 1601-1602, and during the holidays four plays 
were exhibited before her by Shakespeare's company." 
(H.-P. i. 201.) 

The following is copied from the Diary of John 
Manningham, a barrister of the Middle Temple, 
London, 1601-1602 : — 

" At our feast wee had a play called ' Twelve Mght ; 
Or, What you Will,' much like the Commedy of Errores, 
or Menechmi in Plautus, but most like and neere to that 
in Italian called Inganni. A good practise in it to make 
the Steward beleeve his Lady widdowe was in love with 
him, by counterfeyting a letter as from his Lady in gen- 
erall termes, telling him what shee liked best in him, and 
prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparaile, &c, and 
then when he came to practise making him beleeve they 
tooke him to be mad. 

" Upon" a tyme when Burbidge played Richard III. there 
was a citizen grone soe f arr in liking with him, that before 
shee went from the play shee appointed him to come that 
night unto hir by the name of Richard the Third. Shake- 
speare overhearing their conclusion went before, was 
intertained and at his game ere Burbidge came. Then 
message being brought that Richard the Third was at the 
dore, Shakespeare caused returne to be made that William 
the Conqueror was before Richard the Third. Shake- 
speare's name William." 



102 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

Mr. Phillipps says tliat " there is no doubt that 
the comedy was performed by the Lord Chamber- 
lain's servants, and very little that Shakespeare him- 
self was one of the actors who were engaged." 

No play or poem, save the " Turtle and Phoenix/' 
is registered this year. 

The following copyright entry appears : — 

" 1601-2, 18 Januarij. Jo. Busby, — entred for his 
copie, vnder the hand of Mr. Seton, a booke called An 
excellent and pleasant conceited commedie of Sir Jo. 
Faulstof and the merry wyves of windesor." 

Immediately after this under the same day is the 
following entry : — 

" Arthure Johnson, — entred for his copye, by assigne- 
ment from John Busbye, A booke called an excellent 
and pleasant conceyted Comedie of Sir John Faulstafe 
and the merye wyves of Windsor." 

The execution of the Earl of Essex takes place. 

1602. In May the dramatist bought from William 
and John Combe, for £320, one hundred and seven 
acres of land near Stratford-on-Avon. The con- 
veyance begins with these words : — 

" This indenture made the firste daie of Maye, in the 
f owre and fortieth yeare of the raigne of our Soveraigne 
Ladie Elizabeth, by the grace of God, of England, 
Fraunce, and Ireland, Queene, Defendresse of the Faithe, 
&c, betweene William Combe of Warrwicke, in the 
countie of Warrwick, esquier, and John Combe of Olde 
Stretford, in the countie aforesaide, gentleman, on the 
one partie, and William Shakespere of Stretford-uppon- 
Avon, in the countie aforesaide, gentleman, on thother 
party e." 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 103 

Mr. Phillipps says that "it may be that this 
acquisition is referred to by Crosse in his < Vertues 
Commonwealth/ 1603, when he speaks thus un- 
generously of the actors and dramatists of the 
period, ' as these copper-lace gentlemen growe rich, 
purchase lands by adulterous playes, and not fewe 
of them usurers and extortioners, which they 
exhaust out of the purses of their haunters, so are 
they puft up in such pride and selfe-love as they 
envie their equalles and scorne theyr inferiours.'" 

Stratford-on-Avon, in the poet's time, did not 
contain more than "five hundred inhabited houses, 
exclusive of mere hovels," according to Mr. 
Phillipps. 

A defect in the poet's title to New Place was 
remedied this year. 

" On September the 28th, at a Court Baron on the Manor 
of Rowington, one Walter Getley transferred to the poet 
a cottage and garden which were situated in Chapel Lane 
opposite the lower grounds of New Place." (H.-P. i. 204.) 

A cottage in Stratford at this time was a structure 
whose walls were mud and whose roof was thatched. 

The following is copied from the surrender of 
Walter Getley : — 

" Ad hanc curiam venit Walterus Getley, per Thomam 
Tibbottes, juniorem, attornatum suum, unum customari- 
orum tenendum manerii predict!, predicto Thoma Tob- 
bottes jurato pro veritate inde, et sursum reddidit in 
manus domine manerii predicti unum cotagium, cum 
pertinenciis, scituatum, jacens et existens in Stratford- 
super Avon, in quodam vico ibidem vocato Walkers 



104 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

Streete alias Dead Lane, ad opus et usum Willielmi 
Shackespere et heredum suorum imperpetuum, secun- 
dum consuetudinem manerii predicti ; et sic remanet in 
manibus domine manerii predicti, quousque predictus 
Willielmus Shakespere venerit ad capiendum premissa 
predicta." 

Of the value of money in Shakespeare's time 
Mr. Phillipps says : — 

"In balancing the Shakespearean and present cur- 
rencies, the former may be roughly estimated from a 
twelfth to a twentieth of the latter in money, and from a 
twentieth to a thirtieth in landed or house property. 
Even these scales may be deceptively in favour of the 
older values, there having been in Shakespeare's days a 
relative and often a fictitious importance attached to the 
precious metals, arising from their comparative scarcity 
and the limited applicances for dispensing with their use." 
(i. 21.) 

By this standard of money the poet was then 
considered a man whose " pecuniary resources were 
very considerable." 

Of dates, Mr. Phillipps says : — 

" It will be useful also to be constantly bearing in mind 
the difference between the Old and Xew Styles. Accord- 
ing to the former (the one which of course prevailed 
during the whole of the Shakespearean period), each 
month commenced ten days later than it does at the 
present time. It is especially important that this varia- 
tion should be recollected in the consideration of all that 
relates to the country and to rural life." (i. 21.) 

"If, for example, there was a migratory bird that 
uniformly reached England on one particular day, and 
that day was April the 23d in the time of Shakespeare, it 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 105 

would now be first seen, according to onr modern com- 
putation, on May the 3d ; and so nearly accurate is the 
present Gregorian system of reckoning, that more than 
three thousand years would have to elapse before there 
would be an error of a single day in the recognized period 
of the bird's arrival." (ii. 366.) 

"The Revenge of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark/' 
was first produced in the spring of this year by the 
Lord Chamberlain's players at the Globe theatre. 
It was not printed until the summer of 1603. The 
date of its stage representation appears " from the 
entry in the books of the Stationers' Company on 
July 26, 1602, of <a booke called the Revenge of 
Hamlett, Prince Denmarke, as yt was latelie acted 
by the Lo : Chamberleyne his servantes.' " Mr. 
Phillipps says that " there was an old English 
tragedy on the subject of Hamlet which was in 
existence as early as the year 1589/' and w r as 
alluded to by Nash, Decker, and other writers. 
Shakespeare's tragedy was founded on the older 
drama. " Hamlet is the only one of Shakespeare's 
plays/' remarks Mr. Phillipps, "which is noticed 
as having been acted in his lifetime before the 
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The dis- 
tinction was a rare one." 

The following works were published this year : 

" A most pleasaunt and excellent conceited Comedie of 
Syr Iohn Falstaffe and the merrie Wiues of AViudsor: 
entermixed with sundrie variable and pleasing humors 
of Syr Hugh the Welch Knight, Iustice Shallow, and his 
wise Cousin M. Slender ; with the swaggering vaine 
of Auncient Tistoll and Corporall Nym. By William 



106 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 

Shakespeare. As it hath bene diuers times Acted by the 
right Honorable my Lord Chamberlaines seruants, both 
before her Maiestie and else-where. London: Printed 
by T. C. for Arthur Iohnson, and are to be sold at his 
shop in Powles Church-yard, at the signe of the Flower 
de Leuse and the Crowne. 1602." 

" The Tragedie of King Kichard the third : conteining 
his treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence, the 
pittifull murther of his innocent Nephewes, his tyrannicall 
vsurpation ; with the whole course of his detested life and 
most deserued death. As it hath bene lately Acted by 
the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his 
seruants. Newly augmented, by William Shakespeare. 
London : Printed by Thomas Creede for Andrew Wise, 
dwelling in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the 
Angell. 1602." 

" Venvs and Adonis. Vilia miretur vulgus, mihi flauus 
Apollo, Pocula Castalia plena rninistret aqua. Imprinted 
at London for William Leake, dwelling at the signe of 
the Holy Ghost, in Pauls Churchyard. 1602." 

" Venvs and Adonis. Vilia miretur vulgus, mihi flauus 
Apollo, Pocula Castalia plena rninistret aqua. Imprinted 
at London for William Leake, dwelling at the signe of 
the Holy Ghost, in Paules Church-yard. 1602." 

" The Chronicle History of Henry the fift, with his 
battell fought at Agin Court in France ; together with 
Auntient Pistoll. As it hath bene sundry times playd by 
the Right honorable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. 
London : Printed by Thomas Creede for Thomas Pauier, 
and are to be sold at his shop in Cornhill, at the signe of 
the Cat and Parrets neare the Exchange. 1602." 

The copyright entries this year were as follows : 

"1602 (44 Re.), 19 April. Tho. Pavier, — entred for 
his copies, by assignement from Thomas Millington, 
these bookes followinge, salvo jure cuiuscunque ; viz., The 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 107 

first and second parte of Henry the vi., ij. bookes ; a booke 
called Titus and Andronicus. Entred by warrant vnder 
Mr. Seton's hand." 

" 1602, xxvj. Julij. James Robertes, — entred for his 
Copie, vnder the handes of Mr. Pasf eild and Mr. Waterson, 
warden, A booke called the Revenge of Hamlett Prince 
Denmarke, as yt was latelie Acted by the Lo : Chamberleyn 
his servantes." 

"1602-3, 7 Febr. Mr. Robertes, — entered for his 
copie, in full Court holden this day, to print when he hath 
gotten sufficient aucthority for yt, The booke of Troilus 
and Cresseda, as yt is acted by my Lord Chamberlens 
men." 

Thomas Decker, in his " Satiro-Mastix ; Or, The 
Untrussing of the Humorous Poet," alludes to the 
"Comedy, of Errors/* and to Justice Shallow. 
Thomas Acherley, in the " Massacre of Money," 
borrows a line from " Romeo and Juliet." 

1603. The play of "Hamlet," a surreptitious 
edition, was published in the summer of this year 
by Ling and Trundel, with the following title- 
page : — 

" The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet Prince of Denmark 
By William Shake-speare. As it hath beene diuerse 
times acted by his Highnesse seruants in the Citie of 
London ; as also in the two Vniuersities of Cambridge 
and Oxford, and else-where. At London : Printed for 
N. L. and Iohn Trundell. 1603." 

"The hero," says Mr. Phillipps, "was admirably 
portrayed by Burbage, and has ever since, as then, 
been accepted as the leading character of the 
greatest actor of the passing day." 



108 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

A manuscript note by Gabriel Harvey in Speght's 
edition of Chaucer, apparently made soon after 
1600, says : " The younger sort take much delight 
in Shakespeare's i Venus and Adonis ; ? but his 
'Lucrece' and his tragedy of ' Hamlet, Prince of 
Denmarke,' have it in them to please the wiser 
sort." Bishop Percy, who died in 1811, owned this 
copy of Chaucer. "Troilus and Cressida" was 
probably produced at the Globe in the winter of 
1602-1603. 

" Shakespeare's Company had acted before Elizabeth 
at Whitehall on December the 26, 1602 ; [they] were 
summoned to Richmond on the following Candlemas Day, 
February the 2d, 1603. This was the last occasion on 
which the poet could have had the opportunity of appear- 
ing before her. Elizabeth died on March the 24th." 

" James the First arrived in London on May the 17th, 
1603, and ten days afterwards he granted, by bill of Privy 
Signet, a license to Shakespeare and the other members of 
his company to perform in London at the Globe Theatre, 
and, in the provinces, at town-halls or other suitable 
buildings. They itinerated a good deal during the next 
few months, records of then performances being found at 
Bath, Coventry, Shrewsbury, and Ipswich. It was either 
in this year, or early in the following one, and under this 
license, that the company, including the poet himself, 
acted at the Globe in Ben Jonson's new comedy of 
' Sejanus.' 

" The King was staying in December, 1603, at Wilton, 
the seat of one of Shakespeare's patrons, William Herbert, 
third earl of Pembroke, and on the second of that month 
the company had the honour of performing before the 
distinguished party then assembled in that noble 
mansion. In the following Christmas holidays, 1603- 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 109 

1604, they were acting on several occasions at Hampton 
Court, the play selected for representation on the first 
evening of the new year being mentioned by one of the 
audience under the name of Robin Goodf ellow, possibly 
a familiar title of the ' Midsummer Night's Dream.' 
Their services were again invoked by royalty at 
Candlemas and on Shrove Sunday, — on the former 
occasion at Hampton Court before the Florentine ambas- 
sador, and on the latter at Whitehall. At this time they 
were prohibited from acting in or near London, in fear 
that public gatherings might imperil the diminution of the 
pestilence, the King making the company on that account 
the then very handsome present of thirty pounds. 

" Owing in some degree to the severe plague of 1603, 
and more perhaps to royal disinclination, the public entry 
of the King into the metropolis did not take place until 
nearly a year after the death of Elizabeth/' (H.-P. i. 
210, 211.) 

License to Fletcher, Shakespeare, and others to 
play comedies, etc., May 17, 1603. Bill of Privy 
Signet, indorsed "The Players' Priviledge." The 
King's License is given in the same terms in the 
Writ of Privy Seal dated on May the 18th, as well 
as in the Patent under the Great Seal issued on the 
following day. 

" By the King. Right trusty and wel beloved Coun- 
sellour, we greete you well, and will and commaund you 
that, under our Privie Seale in your custody for the time 
being, you cause our lettres to be directed to the Keeper of 
our Greate Seale of England, commaunding him that 
under our said Greate Seale he cause our lettres to be 
made patentes in forme following : James, by the grace 
of God King of England, Scotland, Fraunce, and Irland, 
Defendor of the Faith, etc., to all justices, maiors, 



110 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE. 

sheriffes, constables, hedboroughes, and other on?' officers 
and loving subjectes greeting, — Know ye that we, of our 
speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion, 
have licenced and authorized, and by these presentes doo 
licence and authorize, these our servantes, Lawrence 
Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augus- 
tine Phillippes, John Henninges, Henry Condelh William 
Sly, Eobert Armyn, Richard Cowlye, and the rest of their 
associates, freely to use and exercise the arte and facultie 
of playing comedies, tragedies, histories, enterludes, 
moralles, pastoralles, stage-plaies, and such other like as 
they have already studied or heerafter shall use or studie, 
as well for the recreation of our loving subjectes as for 
our solace and pleasure when we shall thinke good to see 
them, during our pleasure. And the said comedies, 
tragedies, histories, enterludes, morall, pastoralles, stage- 
plaies, and such like, to shew and exercise publiquely to 
their best commoditie, when the infection of the plague 
shall decrease, as well within their now usuall howse 
called the Globe within our countie of Surrey, as also 
within any towne-halles or mout-halles, or other convenient 
places within the liberties and freedome of any other 
citie, universitie, towne, or borough whatsoever within 
our said realmes and dominions ; willing and commaund- 
ing you and every of you, as you tender our pleasure, not 
only to permitt and suffer them heerin without any your 
lettes, hinderances, or molestacions during our said plea- 
sure, but also to be ayding and assisting to them, yf any 
wrong be to them offered, and to allowe them such 
former courtesies as hath bene given to men of their place 
and qualitie ; and also, what further favour you shall shew 
to these our servantes for our sake we shall take kindely 
at your handes. In witnes whereof, etc. And these our 
lettres shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge in 
this behalf. Given under our Signet at our Mannor of 
Greenwiche the seavententh day of May in the first yeere 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Ill 

of our raigne of England, Fraunce, and Irland, and of 
Scotland the six and thirtieth. Ex : per Lake. To our 
right trusty and wel beloved Counsellour, the Lord Cecill 
of Esingdon, Keeper of our Privie Seale for the time 
being." 

The following is the copyright entry for this 
year : — 

"1603 (1 Regis Ja.), 25 Junj. Math. Lawe, — entred 
for his copies, in full courte holden this day, these copies 
followinge ; viz., iij. enterludes or playes. The first is of 
Richard the 3 ; the second of Richard the 2 ; the third of 
Henry the 4 the first parte, — all kinges ; all whiche, by 
consent of the company, are sett ouer to him from Andr : 
Wyse." 

Henry Chettle, in "Englandes Mourning Gar- 
ment/' 1603, calls Shakespeare "Melicert," and 
laments his poetical apathy on the death, of 
Elizabeth : -^ 

" Nor doth the silver-tonged Melicert 
Drop from his honied muse one sable teare 
To mourne her death that graced his desert, 
And to his laies opend her Royall eare. 
Shepheard remember our Elizabeth, 
And sing her Rape done by that Tarquin, Death." 

A poem, "A mourneful Dittie entituled Eliza- 
beth's losse, together with a welcome to King 
James," published this year, contains the follow- 
ing:— 

"You Poets all, brave Shakespeare, Johnson, Green, 1 
Bestow your time to write for England's Queene. 

Lament, lament, lament, you English Peeres, 
Lament your losse, possest so many yeares ! 

1 The Green mentioned here is (according to Ingleby) Thomas 
Green, not the famous Robert. 



112 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

Returne your songs and Sonnets and your laves 
To set forth sweet Elizabeth (a^s praise. 
Lament, lament, etc." 

John Davie s of Hereford publishes this year 
"Microcosmos. The Discovery of the Little 
World, with the Government thereof." This is 
copied from it : — 

" Players, I love yee, and your Qualitie ! 
As ye are Men that pass time not abus'd. 
And some 1 I love for painting, 2 poesie, 
And say fell Fortune cannot be excus'd 
That hath for better uses you refus'd. 
Wit, Courage, good shape, good partes, and all good, — 
As long as al these goods are no worse us'd, 
And though the stage doth staine pure gentle bloud, 
Yet generous 3 yee are in minde and moode." 

Dr. Ingleby says : " Just as Drusus and Koscio 
are associated by Marston, so here we find W. S. 
and E. B. (Shakespeare and Eichard Burbage) in 
company." 

William Camden's "Eemaines concerning Bri- 
taine " was published in 1605. The " Epistle 
Dedicatorie" is dated 1603, and contains the 
following : — 

" These may suffice for some Poeticall descriptions of 
our ancient Poets. If I would come to our time, what a 
world could I present to you out of Sir Philip Sidney, Ed. 
Spencer, John Owen, Samuel Daniel, Hugh Holland, Ben. 

i W. S. R. B. 

2 Simonides faith, that painting is a dumb Poesy, and Poesy a 
speaking painting. 

3 Eoscius was said, for his excellency in his quality, to be only 
worthie to come on the stage ; and for his honesty to be more worthy 
then to come thereon. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 113 

Johnson, Thomas Champion, Mich. Drayton, George 
Chapman, John Marston, William Shakespeare, and other 
most pregnant wits of these our times, whom succeeding 
ages may justly admire." 

A poem called " Saint Marie Magdalen's Conver- 
sion/' published this year, contains these lines : 

"Of Helens rape and Troyes beseiged Towne, 
Of Troylus faith, and Cressids falsitie, 
Of Rychards stratagems for the english crowne, 
Of Tarquins lust and lucrece chastitie, — 
Of these, of none of these, my muse no we treates ; 
Of greater conquests, warres, and loves she speakes." 

Chapman's Iliad of Homer is published this year. 

1604. Ling obtains and Eoberts publishes " an 
authentic transcript" of Hamlet. It is published 
with this titlepage : — 

" The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Den- 
marke. By William Shakespeare. Newly imprinted and 
enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to 
the true and perfect Coppie. At London : Printed by I. 
R. for N". L., and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint 
Dunstons Church in Fleetstreet. 1604." 

Mr. Phillipps says (i. 212) : — 

" It was on the 15th of March, 1604, that James under- 
took his formal march from the Tower to Westminster, 
amidst emphatic demonstrations of welcome, and pass- 
ing every now and then under the most elaborate 
triumphal arches London had ever seen. In the royal 
train were the nine actors to whom the special license had 
been granted the previous year, including of course 
Shakespeare and his three friends, — Burbage, Hemmings, 
and Condell. Each of them was presented with four 

8 



114 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

yards and a half of scarlet cloth, the usual dress-allowance 
to players belonging to the household. The poet and his 
colleagues were termed the King's Servants, and took 
rank at Court amongst the Grooms of the Chamber. 

" Shortly after this event the poet made a visit to 
Stratford-on-Avon. It appears, from a declaration filed 
in the local court, that he had sold in that town to one 
Philip Eogers several bushels of malt at various times 
between March the 27th and the end of May, 1604, and 
that the latter did not, or could not, pay the debt thus 
incurred, amounting to £1. 15s. lOd. Shakespeare had sold 
him malt to the value of £1. 19s. lOr/., and on June 25th 
Rogers borrowed two shillings of the poet at Stratford, — 
making in all £2. Is. 10d. Six shillings of this were 
afterwards paid, and the action was brought to recover 
the balance." 

The " Declaration filed by Shakespeare's orders" 
begins thus : — 

" Stretford Burgus. Phillipus Rogers sommonitus 
fuit per servientem ad clavam ibidem ad respondendum 
AVillielmo Shexpere de placito quod reddat ei triginta et 
quinque solidos decern denarios quos ei debet et injuste 
detinet, et sunt plegii de prosequendo Johannes Doe et 
Ricardus Roe, etc., et unde idem AVillielmus, per Williel- 
mum Tetherton attornatum suum, dicit quod cum 
predictus Phillipus Rogers." 

In a survey, says Mr. Phillipps, of the manor 
taken October 24, 1604, in a list of the " customary 
tenants in Stratforde parcell of the saide manor," 
is this entry: " William Shakespere lykewise 
holdeth there one cottage and one garden, by 
estimation a quarter of one acre, and payeth rent 
yeerlye ij. s. vj. dP 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 115 

In August, a special order was issued by the 
desire of the King for every member of the theat- 
rical company to be in attendance at Somerset 
House. 

The tragedy of the Moor of Venice is performed 
by the King's players, the company of which 
Shakespeare is a member, before the Court, in the 
Banqueting House at Whitehall, on the evening of 
Hallowmas Day, November 1. Eichard Burbage 
takes the part of Othello. The first performer of 
Iago is not known. 

" The author of the elegy on Burbage speaks of that 
famous actor as unrivalled in the character of 'the 
grieved Moor/ and the earliest instance of the double 
appellation occurs in the titlepage of the first edition : 
1 The Tragoedy of Othello, The Moore of Venice. As 
it hath beene diuerse times acted at the Globe, and at the 
Black-Friers, by his Maiesties Seruants. Written by 
William Shakespeare. London : Printed by X. O. for 
Thomas Walkley, and are to be sold at his shop, at the 
Eagle and Child, in Brittans Bursse. 1622.' The second 
title was the one under which the play was usually acted 
during the whole of the seventeenth century." (H.-P. 
ii. 302.) 

The company plays at Oxford in the early part 
of the summer. In the Christmas holidays " Meas- 
ure for Measure " is performed before the Court at 
Whitehall. Mr. Phillipps says (ii. 262) : — 

" The performance here mentioned took place on the 
evening of December the 26th, at Whitehall. ' 1604 and 
1605 ; Edmund Tylney : on St. Stephens night Mesure for 
Mesur by Shaxberd, performed by the King's players/ 



116 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

(Old notes of the Audit Records taken for Malone about 
the year 1800.) ' For rnakeinge readie the halle at White- 
halle for the Kinge, for the plaies againste Christmas, by 
the space of iiij. daies in the same moneth, lxxviij. s. viij. 
d.' (MS. Accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber, 
1604.) " 

May 22, 1604, a little volume is entered in the 
Stationers' Eegister and ascribed to "J. Cooke, 
gent./' called " Epigrames, served out in 52 severall 
Dishes for every man to tast without surf e ting. By 
I. C. Gent./' 12mo. London. It contains these 
lines : — 

" WhoVre will go unto the presse may see 
The hated fathers of vilde balladrie. 
One sings in his base note the River Thames 
Shal sound the famous memory of noble king James ; 
Another saves that he will to his death 
Sing the renowned worthinesse of sweet Elizabeth. 
So runnes their verse in such disordered straine, 
And with them dare great majesty prophane. 
Some dare do this, some other humbly craves 
Eor helpe of Spirits in their sleeping graves, — 
As he that calde to Shakespeare, Johnson, Greene, 
To write of their dead noble Queene." 

"Diaphantus, or the Passions of Love," pub- 
lished in 1604, by Anthony Scoloker, contains the 
following : — 

" It should be like the Never-too-well read Arcadia, 
where the Prose and Yerce (Matter and Words) are like 
his Mistresses eyes, — one still excelling another, and 
without Corivall; or to come home to the vulgar's 
Element, like Friendly Shakespeare's Tragedies, where 
the Commedian rides, when the Tragedian stands on Tip- 
toe : Faith, it should please all, like Prince Hamlet. But 



"WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 117 

in sadnesse then it were to be feared he would runne mad. 
Insooth I will not be moonesicke, to please, nor out of my 
wits though I displeased all." 

Hamlet is alluded to as follows : — 

"Puts off his cloathes; his shirt he onely weares, 
Much like mad-Hamlet ; thus as Passion teares." 

" The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinarie ; Or, 
the Walks in Powles," 1604, has this passage : — 

" Now, Signiors, how like you mine Host ? Did I not 
tell you he was a madde round knave, and a merrie one 
too ? And if you chaunce to talke of f atte Sir John Old- 
castle, he will tell you he was his great Grandfather, and 
not much unlike him in Paunch if you marke him well 
by all descriptions." 

" The Blacke Booke," 1604, has the saying : " Can 
we not take our ease in our Inne ? " 

" The Malcontent," by John Marston, published 
this year, has the line : " Illo, ho, ho, ho ! arte 
there, old true peny ? w 

The following plays are published this year : — 

" The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Den- 
marke. By William Shakespeare. Newly imprinted 
and enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, accord- 
ing to the true and perfect Coppie. At London : Printed 
by I. R. for N. L., and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder 
Saint Dunstons Church in Fleetstreet. 1601." 

" The History of Henrie the Fourth ; with the battell 
at Shrewsburie betweene the King and Lord Henry 
Percy, surnamed Henry Hotspur of the North; with 
the humorous conceits of Sir John Falstalffe. Newly 
corrected by W. Shake-speare. London: Printed by 



118 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

Valentine Simmes for Mathew Law, and are to be solde 
at his shop in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of the 
Fox. 1601." 

The following is copied from the manuscript 
accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber : — 

" For makeinge readie the greate chamber at Whitehalle 
for Kinges majestie to see the plaies, by the space of twoe 
daies mense Novembris, 1601, xxxix. s. iiij. d." 

" For makeinge readie the Banquetinge House at AVhite- 
halle for the Kinges Majestie againste the plaie, by the 
space of iiij. daies mense Govern bris, 1601, lxxviiij. s. 
viij. dr 

" To John Hemynges, one of his Majesties players, 
uppon the Counselles warraunte dated at the Courte at 
Whitehall, xxj. die Januarij, 1601, for the paines and 
expences of himselfe and his companie in playinge and 
presentinge of sixe enterludes or plaies before his 
Majestie ; viz., on All Saintes daie at nighte, the Sonday 
at nighte folio winge beinge the iij.th of November, 1601, 
St. Stephens daie at nighte, Innocentes day at nighte, 
and on the vij.th and viij. th daies of Januarie, — for 
everie of the saide plaies accordinge to the usualle allow- 
aunce of vj. li. xiij. s. iiij. d the peece, xl. li., and lxvj. s. 
viij. d for everie plaie by waie of His Majesties rewarde, 
xx li. ; in all, the some of lx. IV 

"To John Heminges, one of his Majesties plaiers, 
uppon the Counselles w T arraunte dated at the Courte at 
Whitehalle xxiiij. to die Februarij, 1601, for himselfe and 
the reste of his companie, for iiij. interludes or plaies 
presented by them before his Majestie at the Courte ; 
viz., on Candlemas day at nighte, on Shrovesundaye at 
nighte, Shrovemundaye at nighte, and Shrovetuesdaie 
at night, 1601, at vj. li. xiij. s. iiij. d. for everie plaie, 
and lxvj. s. viij. d., by waye of his Majesties rewarde for 
each playe, — in all the some of xl. li. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 119 

1605. Mr. Phillipps says (i. 214) : — 

" Shakespeare's company performed a number of dramas 
before the Court early in the year, including several of his 
own. ... On May the 4th, a few days before his death, 
the poet's colleague, Augustine Phillipps, made his will 
leaving 'to my fellowe, William Shakespeare, a thirty 
shillinges peece in goold.' And in the following July, 
Shakespeare made the largest, and in a monetary sense 
very likely the most judicious, purchase he ever completed, 
giving the sum of £440 for the unexpired term of the 
moiety of a valuable lease of the tithes of Stratford, Old 
Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe." 

The opening lines of the conveyance are as 
follows : — 

" This indenture made the foure and twentythe daye 
of Julye in the yeares of the raigne of our soveraigne 
Lorde James, by the grace of God of Englande, Scotlande, 
Fraunce, and Irelande, kinge, Defender of the Fayeth, 
etc., that is to saye, of Englande, Fraunce, and Irelande 
the thirde, and of Scotlande the eighte and thirtythe, — 
Betweene Raphe Hubande of Ippesley in the countye of 
Warr., esquier, on thone parte, and William Shakespear 
of Stratford-upon-Avon in the sayed countye of Warr., 
gent., on thother parte." 

The name " William Shakespear " appears in the 
conveyance thirteen times, and "William Shake- 
speare " once. The " bond for the performance of 
covenants " has its first half in Latin, and second 
half in English, — " Willielmo Shakespear, gen- 
eroso," and " William Shakespear." 

On the ninth of October the company gave another 
performance before the Mayor and Corporation of 
Oxford. 



120 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

" If the poet, as was most likely the case, was one of 
the actors on the occasion, he would have been lodging at 
the Crown Inn, a wine-tavern kept by one John Davenant, 
who had taken out his license in the previous year, 1604. 
The landlord was a highly respectable man, filling in 
succession the chief municipal offices ; but although of a 
peculiarly grave and saturnine disposition, he was, as 
recorded by Anthony Wood in 1692, 'an admirer and 
lover of plays and play-makers, especially Shakespeare, 
who frequented his house in his journies between War- 
wickshire and London.' His wife is described by the 
same writer as < a very beautiful woman, of a good wit and 
conversation. ' Early in the following year the latter 
presented her husband with a son, who was christened 
at St. Martin's Church on March the 3d, 1606, receiving 
the name of William. ... It was the general belief in 
Oxford, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, 
that Shakespeare was William Daven ant's godfather, 
and there is no reason for questioning the accuracy of 
the tradition." (H.-P. i. 215.) 

The following is copied from John Aubrey's 
" Lives of Eminent Persons," completed in the year 
1680 : — 

" Sir William Davenant, knight, poet-laureate, was 

borne about the end of February in Street in the 

city of Oxford, at the Crowne taverne; baptized 3. of 
March, A. D. 1605-6. His father was John Davenant, 
a vintner there, a very grave and discreet citizen ; his 
mother was a very beautif ull woman, and of a very good 
witt, and of conversation extremely agreeable. They 
had three sons ; viz., Eobert, William, and Nicholas, an 
attorney (Robert was a fellow of St. John's Coll. in Oxon, 
then preferd to the vicarage of West Kington by Bp. 
Davenant, whose chaplaine he was), and two handsome 
daughters, — one m. to Gabriel Bridges, B. D. of C. C. C, 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 121 

beneficed in the Yale of the White Horse ; another to Dr. 
Sherburne, minister of Pembridge in Heref . and a canon 
of that church. Mr. William Shakespeare was wont to 
goe into Warwickshire once a yeare, and did commonly 
in his journey lye at this house in Oxon., where he was 
exceedingly respected. I have heard Parson Robert say 
that Mr. W. Shakespeare has given him a hundred 
kisses. Now Sir Wm. would sometimes, when he was 
pleasant over a glasse of wine with his most intimate 
friends, — e. g., Sam. Butler, author of Hudibras, etc., 
— say that it seemed to him that he writt with the very 
spiritt that Shakespeare, and was contented enough to be 
thought his son ; he would tell them the story as above. 
Now, by the way, his mother had a very light report. In 
those days she was called a trader. He went to schoole 
at Oxon., to Mr. Charles Silvester, wheare F. Degorii W. 
was his schoole-fellowe ; but I feare he was drawne from 
schoole before he was ripe enough. He was preferred to 
the first Dutches of Richmond to wayte on her as a page." 

The substance of this statement is repeated by 
many later writers, including Pope, Spence, and 
Oldys. Mr. Phillipps believes that the " onslaught 
upon the lady's reputation is a scandalous mis- 
statement.'' 

The following letter from Sir Walter Cope, 
written in January, 1605, addressed "from your 
library : To the right honorable the Lorde Vycount 
Cranborne at the Courte," is now preserved at 
Hatfield : — 

Sir, — I have sent and bene all thys morning huntyng 
for players, Juglers, & Such kinde of Creaturs, but fynde 
them harde to finde ; wherefore Leavinge notes for them 
to seeke me, burbage ys come, & Sayes ther ys no new 
playe that the quene hath not seene, but they have 



122 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

Revyved an olde one, Cawled ' Loves Lahore lost,' which 
for wytt & mirthe he sayes will please her excedingly. 
And Thys ys apointed to he playd to Morowe night at 
my Lord of Sowthamptons unless yow send a wrytt to 
Remove the Corpus Cum Causa to your howse in strande. 
Burbage ys my messenger Ready attendyng your pleasure. 
Yours most humbly, 

Walter Cope. 

The following plays are published this year : — 

The Tragedie of King Richard the third ; Conteining 
his treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence, the 
pittif ull murther of his innocent Nephewes, his tyrannicall 
vsurpation, with the whole course of his detested life, and 
most deserued death. As it hath bin lately Acted by the 
Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. 
Newly augmented. By William Shake-speare, — London : 
Printed by Thomas Creede, and are to be sold by Mathew 
Lawe, dwelling in Paules Church-yard, at the Signe of 
the Foxe, neare S. Austins gate. 1605." 

" The London Prodigall. As it was plaide by the 
Kings Maiesties seruants. By William Shakespeare. 
London : Printed by T. C. for Nathaniel Butter, and are 
to be sold neere S. Austins gate, at the signe of the pyde 
Bull. 1605." ! 

" The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke. 
By William Shakespeare. Newly imprinted and enlarged 
to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true 
and perfect Coppie. At London : Printed by I. R. for 
N. L. and are to be solde at his shoppe vnder Saint 
Dunstons Church in Fleetstreet. 1605." 

The first part of Don Quixote is published. 
1606. Mr. Phillipps says (i. 219) : — 

" A considerable portion of this year was spent by the 
King's Company in provincial travel. They w T ere at 
1 Not written by Shakespeare. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 123 

Oxford in July, at Leicester in August, at Dover in 
September, and at some unrecorded periods at Maidstone, 
Saffron Walden, and Marlborough. Before the winter 
had set in they had returned to London ; and in the 
Christmas holidays, on the evening of December the 26th, 
the tragedy of 'King Lear/ some of the incidents of which 
were adopted from one or more older dramas on the same 
legend, was represented before King James at Whitehall, 
having no doubt been produced at the Globe in the sum- 
mer of that year." 

The following is copied from " The Eeturne from 
Pernassus ; Or, the Scourge of Simony. Publiquely 
acted by the Students in St. John's College in 
Cambridge/' — probably acted in 1601 or 1602, but 
not published till 1606 : — 

" Ingenioso. What 's thy judgment of . . . William Shake- 
speare ? 

Judicio. Who loves Adonis love, or Lucre's rape, 
His sweeter verse containes hart-robbing life, 
Could but a graver subject him content, 
Without love's foolish, lazy languishment. 

Kemp. Few of the university pen plaies well ; they smell too 
much of that writer Ovid, and that writer Metamorphosis, and 
talke too much of Proserpine & Juppiter. Why here's our 
fellow Shakespeare puts them all downe, — ay, and Ben Jonson 
too. O that Ben Jonson is a pestilent fellow ! He brought up 
Horace giving the Poets a pill ; but our fellow Shakespeare 
hath given him a purge that made him beray his credit. 

Burbage. It 's a shrewd fellow indeed. 

Burbage, I like your face, and the proportion of your body 
for Richard the 3. I pray, M. Phil., let me see you act a little 
of it. 

Philomusus. Now is the winter of our discontent 
Made glorious summer by the sonne of Yorke." 



124 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

"William Drunnnond, of Hawthornden, left manu- 
script notes that have been printed. The following 
is copied from " Books red be me, anno 1606 : " — 

" Romeo and Julieta, tragedie (1597, 1599)." 

"Loues Labors Lost, comedie (1598)." 

" The Passionate Pilgrime (1599)." 

"The Rape of Lucrece (1591, 1598, 1600)." 

"A Midsommers Xights Dreame, comedie (1600.)" 

" Table of my English bookes, anno 1611 : 
" Venus and Adon. by Schaksp(6th and 7th ed. 1602)." 
" The Rap of Lucrece, idem (two eds. in 1607)." 
" The Tragedie of Romeo and Julieta (46?. Ing)." 
"A Midsumers Mght Dreame." 

Drarnniond marks the price he paid for " Romeo 
and Juliet/' — fourpence. 

No plays were published this year. 

1606. The following are the copyright entries 
for this year : — 

" 1606-7, 22 Januar. Mr. Linge, — entred for his 
copies, by direction of a Court, and with consent of Mr. 
Burby vnder his handwryting, These iij. copies; viz., 
Romeo and Juliett, Loues Labour Loste, The taminge of 
a Shrewe." 

1607. " The poet's eldest daughter, Susanna, then in 
her twenty-fifth year, was married at Stratford-on-Avon 
on June the 5th, 1607, to John Hall, M. A., — a physi- 
cian who afterwards rose to great provincial eminence." 
(H.-P. i. 219.) 

The record in the Stratford Church Register 
reads : " 1607, M. Junij 5. John Hall, gentleman, 
and Susanna Shaxpere." 

"Shakespeare's company were playing at Oxford on 
September the 7th, 1607 ; and towards the close of the 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 125 

same year he lost his brother Edmund, who on Thursday, 
December the 31st, was buried at Southwark, in the 
Church of St. Saviour's, 'with a forenoone knell of the 
great bell.' " (H.-P. i. 221.) 

The burial in the church was a mark of respect 
seldom paid to an actor. The parish burial register 
was as follows : — 

" Burialles, December 31, 1607. Edmund Shakspeare, 
a player, buried in the church with a forenoone knell of the 
great bell, xx. s. [The Sexton's MS. note, St. Saviour's, 
Southwark :] " 1607, Decemb 31. Edmond Shakespeare, 
a player, in the Church." 

Edmund Shakespeare, according to Mr. Phillipps, 
was in the twenty-eighth year of his age at the time 
of his death. 

In November the booksellers " made an arrange- 
ment with the King's company to enable them to 
obtain the sanction of the Master of the Revels for 
the publication of the tragedy of 'King Lear.' " 

The following are the copyright entries for this 
year : — 

"1607 (5 Regis), 19 Novembr. Jo. Smythick,— 
entred for his copies, vnder thandes of the wardens, these 
bookes following, whiche dyd belonge to Nicholas Lynge ; 
viz., a booke called Hamlett ; Romeo and Juliett ; Loues 
labour lost." 

" 1607 (5 Regis) 26 Nov. Na. Butter, Jo. Busby, — 
entred for theer copie, vnder thandes of Sir Geo. Buck, 
knight, and thwardens, a book called Mr. William Shake- 
speare his hi story e of Kinge Lear, as yt was played before 
the Kinges maiestie at Whitehall vppon St. Stephans 
night at Christmas last, by his maiesties servantes play- 
inge vsually at the globe on the Banksyde." 



126 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 

A work entered at Stationers' Hall, November 
12, 1607, called " Mirrha, the Mother of Adonis ; 
Or, Lustes Prodegies," by William Barksted, con- 
tains these lines : — 

" But, stay, my Muse ! in thine owne confines keepe, 
And wage not warre with so deere lov'd a neighbor ; 
But having sung thy day-song, rest and sleepe ; 
Preserve thy small fame and his greater favor. 
His song was worthie merrit. Shakespeare, hee 
Sung the faire blossome ; thou, the withered tree. 
Laurell is due to him, — his art and wit 
Hath purchast it ; cypres thy brow will fit." 

The following is found in "Merrie Conceited 
Jests of George Peele," published in 1607 : — 

" George was making merry with three or f oure of his 
friends in Pyecorner, where the Tapster of the honse was 
much given to Poetrie ; for he had ingrossed ' The Knight 
of the Sunne, Venus and Adonis, and other Pamphlets 
which the Stripling had collected together.' " 

" The Woman-Hater," by John Fletcher, 1607, 
has this line from Hamlet, — 

" So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear." 

" The Merry Divel of Edmonton," 1607, contains 

the lines, — 

" My stiffened hayre stands vpright on my head, 
As doe the bristles of a porcupine. " 

Thomas Decker, 1607, in " A Knight's Coniuring 
done in earnest, discouered in iest," has a passage 
ending, u is the onely cause of this Comedie of 
errors." 

John Marston, in "What You Will," 1607, copies 
" A horse, a horse ! my Kingdom for a horse ! M 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 127 

The journal of the "Dragon" (Captain Keeling) 
bound towards the East Indies, contains this 
passage : — 

" September 5 (at i Serra Leona ' ) I sent the inter- 
preter, according to his desier, abord the ' Hector/ whear 
he brooke fast, and after came abord mee, wher we gave 
the tragedie of ' Hamlett.' 

" [September] 30. Captain Hawkins dined with me, 
wher my companions acted * Kinge Richard the Second.' 

[September] 31. I envited Captain Hawkins to a ffishe 
dinner, and had < Hamlet ' acted abord me ; which I 
permitt to keepe my people from idlenes and unlawf ull 
games, or sleepe." 

Thomas Heywood, 1607, in " The Eayre Mayde 
of the Exchange/' has " I never read anything but 
' Venus and Adonis/ " and parodies two lines. 

An edition of " Lucrece " " printed be N". 0. for 
Iohn Harison," was published this year. 

1608. " Elizabeth, the only child of the Halls, was born 
in February, 1608, an event which conferred on Shake- 
speare the dignity of grandfather. The poet lived to see 
her attain the engaging age of eight ; and the fact of his 
entertaining a great affection for her does not require the 
support of probability derived from his traditionally 
recorded love of children. If he had not been extremely 
fond of the little girl, it is not likely that he would have 
specifically bequeathed so mere a child nearly the whole 
of his plate in addition to a valuable contingent interest 
in his pecuniary estate. It appears, from the records of 
some chancery proceedings, that she inherited in after life 
the shrewd business qualities of her grandfather; but, 
with this exception, nothing is known of her disposition 
or character.'' (H.-P. i. 222.) 



128 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

In the spring of the year the drama of " Pericles " 
was represented at the Globe Theatre. Edward 
Blount, a London bookseller, obtained the sanction 
of the Master of the Eevels for the publication of 
the play, "but the emoluments derived from the 
stage performances were probably too large for the 
company [of actors] to incur the risk of their being 
diminished by the circulation of the printed drama." 

The tragedy of "Antony and Cleopatra" was 
performed at the Globe at about the time that 
"Pericles" was so well received. Blount also 
secured the consent of the Master of the Eevels to 
its publication, but the company again frustrated 
his immediate design. 

A play called the " Yorkshire Tragedy " was dis- 
honestly introduced to the public as having been 
" written by W. Shakespeare." It was "printed 
by B, B. for Thomas Pavier," in 1608. 

" It is not unlikely that the publisher of the ' Yorkshire 
Tragedy ' took advantage of the departure of Shakespeare 
from London to perpetrate his nominated fraud, for the 
poet's company were travelling on the southern coast 
about the time of its appearance. A few months later 
the great dramatist was destined to lose his mother, the 
Mary Arden of former days, who was buried at Stratford- 
on-Avon on September the 9th, 1608. He would naturally 
have desired, if possible, to attend the funeral, and it is 
nearly certain that he was at his native town in the 
following month. On October the 16th he was the 
principal godfather at the baptism of the William 
Walker to whom, in 1616, he bequeathed ' twenty 
shillings in gold.' This child was the son of 'Henry 
Walker, a mercer and one of the aldermen of the town. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 129 

It should be added that the King's Servants were playing 
at Coventry on the twenty-ninth of the last-named month, 
and that they acted in the same year upon some unknown 
occasion at Marlborough. ,, (H.-P. i. 224.) 

In August, 1608, the poet brought an action 
against a townsman, John Addenbroke, for the 
recovery of a debt. The first precept for a jury is 
dated December 21, 1608 : — 

" Stratford Burgus. — Preceptum est servientibus ad 
clavam ibidem quod capiant, seu, etc., Johannem Adden- 
brooke, generosum, si, etc., et eum salvo, etc., ita quod 
habeant corpus ejus coram ballivo burgi predicti, ad 
proximam curiam de recordo ibidem tenendam, ad 
respondendum Willielmo Shackspeare, generoso, de 
placito debiti, et habeant ibi tunc hoc preceptum, etc." 

" The Dumb Knight/' by Lewis Machin, published 
this year, contains several lines taken from " Venus 
and Adonis," and the following passage : — 

" Velours, I pray you, sir, what book do you read ? 

" Precedent. A book that never an orator's clerk in this 
kingdom but is beholden unto ; it is called ' Maid's 
Philosophy ; Or, Venus and Adonis.' Look you, gentle- 
men, I have divers other pretty books." 

John Day's "Law Tricks, a comedy," 1608, 
copies from " Pericles " the saying that " fishes live 
in the sea as men do on land : the great ones eate 
up the little ones." 

The following works are printed this year : — 

" The Tragedie of King Richard the Second ; With new 
additions of the Parliament Sceane, and the deposing of 
King Richard. As it hath been lately acted by the 

9 



130 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 

Kinges Maiesties seruantes, at the Globe. By William 
Shake-speare. At London : Printed by W. W. for 
Mathew Law, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules 
Churchyard, at the signe of the Foxe. 1608." 

" M. William Shake-speare : His True Chronicle, History 
of the life and death of King Lear and his three Daugh- 
ters ; With the vnf ortunate life of Edgar, sonne and heire 
to the Earle of Glocester, and his sullen and assumed 
humour of Tom of Bedlam. As it was plaid before the 
Kings Maiesty at White-Hall, vppon S. Stephens night, 
in Christmas Hollidaies, by his Maiesties Seruants, play- 
ing vsually at the Globe on the Banck-side. Printed for 
Nathaniel Butter. 1608." 

" The Chronicle History of Henry the fift ; with his 
battell fought at Agin Court in France ; together with 
ancient Pistoll. As it hath bene sundry times playd by 
the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his Ser- 
uants. Printed for T. P. 1608." 

" The History of Henry the fourth ; With the battell at 
Shrewsburie betweene the King and Lord Henry Percy, 
surnamed Henry Hotspur of the North ; With the 
humorous conceites of Sir Iohn Falstalffe. Newly 
corrected by W. Shake-speare. London : Printed for 
Mathew Law, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules 
Church-yard, neere vnto S. Augustines gate, at the signe 
of the Foxe. 1608." 

" The Tragedie of King Richard the second. As it 
hath been publikely acted by the Right Honourable the 
Lord Chamberlaine his seruantes. By William Shake- 
speare. London : Printed by W. W. for Mathew Law, 
and are to be sold at his shop in Paules Church-yard, at 
the signe of the Foxe. 1608." 

" M. William Shak-speare : His True Chronicle, His- 
toric of the life and death of King Lear and his three 
Daughters; With the vnfortunate life of Edgar, sonne 
and heire to the Earle of Gloster, and his sullen and 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 131 

assumed humor of Tom of Bedlam. As it was played 
before the Kings Maiestie at Whitehall vpon S. Stephans 
night in Christmas Hollidayes, by his Maiesties seruants 
playing vsually at the Gloabe on the Ban ck -side. 
London : Printed for Nathaniel Butter, and are to be 
sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the 
Pide Bull neere St. Austins Gate. 1608." 

The following copyright entries appear : — 

"1608 (6 regis Jacobi), 2 die Maij. Mr. Payver, — 
entered for his copie, vnder the handes of Mr. Wilson and 
Mr. Warden Seton, A booke called a Yorkshire Tragedy, 
written by Wylliam Shakespere." 

" 1608, 20 May. Edw. Blount, — entred for his copie, 
vnder thandes of Sir Geo. Buck, knight, and Mr. Warden 
Seton, a booke called The booke of Perycles prynce of 
Tyre." 

Under the same day are the following entries : 

" Edw. Blunt, — entred also for his copie, by the lyke 
aucthoritie, a booke called Anthony and Cleopatra." 

" 1608-9, 28 Januarij. Ri. Bonian, Henry Walleys, — 
entred for their copy, vnder thandes of Mr. Segar, deputy 
to Sir George Bucke, and Mr. Warden Lownes, a booke 
called The history of Troylus and Cressula." 

1609. February 15. A peremptory summons 
was issued to the jury in the action against John 
Addenbroke. Mr. Phillipps says (i. 225) : — 

" A verdict was then given in favour of the poet for £6 
and £ 1. 4s. costs, and execution went forth against the 
defendant ; but the sergeant-at-mace returning that he 
was not to be found within the liberty of the borough, 
Shakespeare proceeded against a person of the name of 
Horneby, who had become bail for Addenbroke. This 



132 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

last process is dated on June the 7th, 1609, so that nearly 
a year elapsed during the prosecution of the suit. It 
must not be assumed that the great dramatist attended 
personally to these matters, although of course the pro- 
ceedings were carried on under his instructions. The 
precepts, as appears from memoranda in the originals, 
were issued by the poet's cousin, Thomas Greene, who 
was then residing, under some unknown conditions, at 
Xew Place." 

Concerning the Sonnets, Mr. Phillipps says 
(i. 226) : — 

" The spring of the year 1609 is remarkable in literary 
history for the appearance of one of the most singular 
volumes that ever issued from the press. It was entered 
at Stationers' Hall on May the 20th, and published by 
one Thomas Thorpe under the title of ' Shake-speare's 
Sonnets, neuer before imprinted,' the first two words 
being given in large capitals, so that they might attract 
their full share of public notice. This little book, a very 
small quarto of forty leaves, was sold at what would now 
be considered the trifling price of five-pence. The exact 
manner in which these Sonnets were acquired for publica- 
tion remains a mystery, but it is most probable that they 
were obtained from one of the poet's intimate friends, 
who alone would be likely to have copies, not only of so 
many of those pieces but also one of the ' Lover's 
Complaints.' However that may be, Thorpe, — the well- 
wishing adventurer, — was so elated with the opportunity 
of entering into the speculation that he dedicated the 
work to the factor in the acquisition, one Mr. TV\ H., in 
language of hyperbolical gratitude, wishing him every 
happiness and an eternity, the latter in terms which are 
altogether inexplicable. The surname of the addressee, 
which has not been recorded, has been the subject of 
numerous futile conjectures ; but the use of initials in the 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 133 

place of names, especially if they referred to private 
individuals, was then so extremely common that it is 
not necessary to assume that there was an intentional 
reservation. 

" At the time that the Sonnets issued from the press 
the author's company were itinerating in Kent, playing at 
Hythe on the sixteenth of May and at New Eomney on 
the following day. They were also at Shrewsbury at some 
unrecorded period in the same year, a memorable one in 
the theatrical biography of the great dramatist; for in 
the following December the eyry of children quitted the 
Blackfriars Theatre to be replaced by Shakespeare's 
company. The latter then included Hemmings, Condell, 
Burbage, and the poet himself." 

Mr. Dowden says of the Sonnets : — 

"When were the Sonnets written? We know that 
Meres in 1598 spoke of Shakspere's ' sugred sonnets 
among his private friends,' and that in 1599 two (138 and 
141) were printed in < The Passionate Pilgrim.' Some, if 
we were to judge by their style, seem to belong to the 
time when ' Romeo and Juliet ' was written. Others — 
as, for example, 66-74 — echo the sadder tone which is 
heard in < Hamlet' and ' Measure for Measure.' The 
writing of the Sonnets certainly extended over a consider- 
able period of time, — at least three years, and perhaps a 
longer period. They all lie, I believe, somewhere between 
1595 and 1605. 

" The Sonnets consist of two series, — the first from 1 
to 126 (The Envoy, 126, consisting of twelve lines in 
couplets), addressed to a young man ; the other, 127-154, 
addressed to or referring to a woman. But both series 
allude to events which connect the two persons with one 
another and with Shakspere. The young friend, whom 
Shakspere loved with a fond idolatry, was beautiful, clever, 
rich in the gifts of fortune, of high rank. The woman was 



134 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

of stained character, false to her husband, the reverse of 
beautiful, dark-eyed, pale-faced, a musician, possessed 
of a strange power of attraction. To her fascination 
Shakspere yielded himself; and in his absence she laid 
her snares for Shakspere's friend, and won him. Hence 
a coldness, estrangement, and for some time a complete 
severance betweeen Shakspere and his friend, — after a 
time followed by acknowledgment of faults on both sides, 
and a complete reconciliation. ,, 

In a manuscript account of payments, 1609, is a 
note, says Mr. Phillipps (ii. 304), by Alleyn, under 
the title of "howshowld stuff," of "a book, 
Shaksper sonettes, hd" That this was the con- 
temporary price of the work is confirmed by an 
early manuscript note, 5d. on the titlepage of the 
copy of the first edition preserved in Earl Spencer's 
library at Althorp. 

" The exact period is unknown, but it was in the same 
year, 1609, or not very long afterwards, that Shakespeare 
and two other individuals either commenced or devised 
a law-suit bearing upon a question in which he was 
interested as a partial owner of the Stratford tithes. Our 
only information on the subject is derived from the draft 
of a bill of complaint, one that was penned under the 
following circumstances. Nearly all of the valuable pos- 
sessions of the local college, including the tithes of Strat- 
ford-on-Avon, Old Stratford, Welcombe, and Bishopton, 
were granted by Edward the Sixth, a few days before 
his death in 1553, to the Corporation ; but the gift was 
subject to the unexpired term of a lease for ninety -two 
years which had been executed in 1544 by the then pro- 
prietors in favour of one William Barker. The next 
owner of the lease, John Barker, assigned it in 1580 to 
Sir John Huband, but he reserved to himself a rent- 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 135 

charge of £27. 13s. 4:d. y with the usual power of re-entry 
in case of non-payment. The above-mentioned tithes 
were of course involved in this liability ; but when Shake- 
speare purchased a moiety of them in 1605, it was 
arranged that his share of that charge should be com- 
muted by an annual payment of £5. An observance of 
this condition should have absolved the poet from further 
trouble in the matter, but this unfortunately was not the 
case. When the bill of complaint was drafted, there were 
about forty persons who had interests under Barker's leasej 
and commutations of the shares of the rent-charge had 
only been made in two cases, — that is to say, in those of 
the owners of the tithe-moieties. A number of the other 
tenants had expressed their willingness to join in an 
equitable arrangement, provided that it was legally carried 
out ; but there were some who declined altogether to con- 
tribute, and hence arose the necessity of taking measures 
to compel them to do so, — a few, including Shakespeare, 
having had to pay more than their due proportions to 
avoid the forfeitures of their several estates. The re- 
sult of the legal proceedings, if any were instituted, is 
not known ; but there are reasons for believing that the 
movement terminated in some way in favour of the 
complainants. 

" The annual income which Shakespeare derived from 
his moiety is estimated in the bill of complaint at £60 ; 
but this was not only subject to the payment of the above- 
named £5, but also to that of one-half of another rent- 
charge — one of £34 — that belonged to the Corporation of 
Stratford. His nett income from the tithes would thus 
be reduced to £38, but it was necessarily of a fluctuating 
character, — the probability, however, being that there 
was a tendency towards increase, especially in the latter 
part of his career. It is most likely that he entered into 
an agreement each year with a collector, whose province 
it would have been to relieve him of all trouble in the 



136 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

matter, and pay over a stipulated amount. It is not 
probable that he himself visited the harvest field to mark, 
as was then the local practice, every tenth sheaf with a 
dock, or that he personally attended to the destination of 
each of his tithe-pigs." (H.-P. i. 227.) 

ii 'Iua' Rent Eolle of all the Landes and Tenementes 
belonginge to the Bailiife and Burgisses of the Boroughe 
of Stratforde-upon-Avon,' 1598, is the following entry : 
4 Thexecutours of Sir John Huband doe holde all nianer 
of tythes of come, groyne, and hey, in the townes, ham- 
lettes* villages, and fieldes of Okie Stratford, Welcome, 
and Bishopton, and all nianer of tythes of woole, lambe, 
hempe, flaxe, and other small and privie tythes, for the 
yerely rent of xxxiiij. IL, paiable at our Lady Day and 
Michaelmas.' In the place of the executors of Huband 
there is inserted in Thomas GreeDe's later handwriting : 
; Mr. Thomas Combes and Mr. William Shakespeare.' " 
(H.-P. ii. 318.) 

The following is the Preface to the first edition 
of " Troilus and Cressida," 1609. It was probably 
written, at the request of the publishers, by some 
well-known author of the day. 
"A never writer to an ever reader, — Kewes : 

Et email reader, you have heere a new play, never stal'd 
with the stage, never clapper-clawd with the palmes of 
the vulger, and yet passing full of the palme comicall : 
for it is a birth of your braine that never undertooke any 
thing commicall vainely ; and were but the vaine names 
of commedies changde for the titles of commodities, or of 
playes for pleas, you should see all those grand censors, that 
now stile them such vanities, flock to them for the maine 
grace of their gravities, — especially this author's comme- 
dies, that are so fram'd to the life that they serve for the 
most common commentaries of all the actions of our lives, 
showing such a dexteritie and power of wittie that the 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 137 

most displeased with playes are pleasd with his comme- 
dies. And all such dull and heavy-witted worldlings as 
were never capable of the witte of a commedie, comming 
by report of them to his representations, have found that 
witte there that they never found in themselves, and have 
parted better-wittied than they came, feeling an edge of 
witte set upon them more than ever they dreamd they 
had braine to grinde it on. So much and such savored 
salt of witte is in his commedies that they seeme for their 
height of pleasure to be borne in that sea that brought 
forth Venus. Amongst all there is none more witty then 
this ; and had I time T would comment upon it, though I 
know it needs not, for so much as will make you thinke 
your testerne well bestowd, but for so much worth as even 
poore I know to be stuft in it. It deserves such a labour 
as well as the best commedy in Terence or Plautus ; and 
beleeve this, that when hee is gone, and his commedies 
out of sale, you will scramble for them, and set up a new 
English Inquisition. Take this for a warning, and at the 
perrill of your pleasures losse and judgements refuse not, 
nor like this the lesse for not being sullied with the 
smoaky breath of the multitude ; but thanke fortune for 
the scape it hath made amongst you, since by the grand 
possessors wills I beleeve you should have prayd for them 
rather than beene prayd. And so I leave all such to bee 
prayd for (for the states of their wits healths) that will 
not praise it. Vale.'" 

Concerning this play, Mr. Phillipps (i. 209) 
says : — 

" Shakespeare's < Troilus and Cressida ' was not printed 
until early in the year 1609, when two publishers, Bonian 
and Walley, having surreptitiously procured a copy, 
ventured on its publication ; and in the hope of attracting 
purchasers, they had the audacity to state, in an unusual 
preface, that it had never been represented on the stage. 



138 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, 

They even appear to exult in having treacherously 
obtained a manuscript of the tragedy ; but the triumph 
of their artifices was of brief duration. The deceptive 
temptation they offered of novelty must have been im- 
mediately exposed, and a pressure was no doubt exerted 
upon them by the company, who probably withdrew their 
opposition on payment of compensation ; for by the 28th 
of January the printers had received a license from the 
Lord Chamberlain for the publication. The preface was 
then entirely cancelled, and the falsity of the assertion 
that ' Troilus and Cressida ' had never been acted was 
conspicuously admitted by the re-issue professing to 
appear ' as it was acted by the King's Majesty's Servants 
at the Globe/ — when is not stated." 

In 1609, says Phillipps, a stage-loving parent, one 
William Bishop, of Shoreditch, who had perhaps 
been taken with the representation of the tragedy, 
gave the name of Othello's perfect wife to one of 
his twin daughters. 

" Catherine and Dezdimonye, the daughters of 
William Bishoppe, were baptized the xiiij.th of 
September," — Registers of St. Leonard's, Shore- 
ditch, 1609. 

There was published this year "The Civile 
Warres of Death and Fortune," by John Davies of 
Hereford, from which the following is copied : — 

" Some followed her by acting a all mens parts ; 
These on a stage she rais'd (in scorne) to fall, 
And made them Mirrors, by their acting Arts, 
Wherin men saw their 2 faults, though ne'r so small. 
Yet some she guerdond not, to their 3 desarts , 
But othersome were but ill-Action all, 

1 Stage-plaiers. 2 Shewing the vices of the time. 

3 W. S. R. B. (W. Shakespeare ; R. Burbage.) 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 139 

Who while they acted ill, ill staid behinde 
(By custome of their maners) in their minde." 

The entry of an edition of the Sonnets in the 
Stationers' Eegister runs thus: "20 Maij, 1609. 
Tho. Thorpe. A booke called Shakespeare's 
Sonnets." The dedication is as follows : — 

THOMAS THORPE, 1609. 

TO * THE * ONLIE * BEGETTER ' OF ■ 

THESE ' INSVING * SONNETS • 

Mr * W * H • ALL ' HAPPINESSE ■ 

AND ' THAT * ETERNITIE • 

PROMISED ' 

BY " 

OVR ■ EVER-LIVING * POET • 

WISHETH ' 

THE * WELL-WISHING * 

ADVENTVRER ■ IN ' 

SETTING * 

FORTH ' 

T. T. 

A book called " Pimlyco or Eun Eed-cap : 'T is 
a mad world at Hogsdon," published in 1609, 
contains these lines : — 

" Amaz'd I stood, to see a crowd 
Of civil throats stretched out so loud. 
As at a new play all the rooms 
Did swarm with gentles mixt with grooms ; 
So that I truly thought all these 
Came to see Shore or Pericles.' , 

Ben Jonson. in "Epicene; Or, The Silent 
Woman/' 1609, refers to " Dol Teare-sheet." 
The following works were published this year : 



140 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 

" The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid : 
Excellently expressing the beginning of their loues ; with 
the conceited wooing of Pandarus Prince of Licia. 
Written by William Shakespeare. London : Imprinted 
by G. Eld for R. Bonian and H. Walley, and are to be 
sold at the spred Eagle in Panles Church-yeard, ouer 
against the great North doore. 1609." 

" The Historie of Troylus and Cresseida, as it was acted 
by the Kings Maiesties seruants at the Globe. Written 
by William Shakespeare. London : Imprinted by G. Eld 
for R. Bonian and H. Walley, and are to be sold at the 
spred Eagle in Paules Church-yeard, ouer against the great 
North doore. 1609." 

" The Late And much admired Play called Pericles, 
Prince of Tyre ; with the true Relation of the whole 
Historie, aduentures, and fortunes of the said Prince ; as 
also, The no lesse strange and worthy accidents in the 
Birth and Life of his Daughter Mariana, — as it hath 
been diuers and sundry times acted by his Maiesties 
Seruants, at the Globe on the Banck-side. By William 
Shakespeare. Imprinted at London for Henry Gosson, 
and are to be solde at the signe of the Sunne in Pater- 
noster row, &c. 1609." 

" The Late And much admired Play called Pericles, 
Prince of Tyre ; with &c. 1609." * 

" Shake-speares Sonnets. Xeuer before Imprinted. 
At London : By G. Eld for T. T., and are to be solde by 
lohn Wright, dwelling at Christ Church-gate. 1609." 

" Shakespeares Sonnets. Neuer before Imprinted. At 
London : By G. Eld for T. T., and are to be solde by 
William Aspley. 1609." 

" The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of 
Romeo and Juliet, as it hath beene sundrie times pub- 
liquely Acted by the Kings Maiesties Seruants at the 

1 The title of this, the second edition, is identical with that 
last given. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 141 

Globe. Newly corrected, augmented, and amended. 
London : Printed for Iohn Smethwick, and are to be sold 
at his shop in Saint Dunstanes Church-yard, in Fleete 
streete vnder the Dyall. 1609." 

This copyright entry also appears this year : 

" 1609, 20 May. Tho. Thorpe, — entred for his copie, 
vnder the handes of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Lownes, warden, 
a Booke called Shakespeares sonnettes." 

1610. In this year Shakespeare appears to be 
growing rich. 

" The year 1610 is nearly barren of recorded incidents ; 
but in the early part of it Shakespeare purchased twenty 
acres of pasture land from the Combes, adding them to 
the valuable freeholds that he had obtained from those 
parties in 1602. After this transaction he owned no fewer 
than a hundred and twenty-seven acres in the common 
fields of Stratford and its neighborhood. His first pur- 
chase consisted entirely of arable land, but although he 
had the usual privilege of common of pasture that was 
attached to it, the new acquisition was no doubt a desir- 
able one. The concord of the fine that was prepared on 
the latter occasion is dated April the 13th, 1610, and as it 
was acknowledged before Commissioners it may be 
inferred that Shakespeare was not in London at the time. 
His company were at Dover in July, at Oxford in August, 
and at Shrewsbury at some period of the year which has 
not been recorded." (H.-P. i. 229.) 

" The praecipe of the fine is dated May the 28th, 1610, 
— 'Willielmo Combe armigero, et Johanni Combe, 
generoso, quod juste, &c, teneant Willielmo Shakespere, 
generoso, conventionem, &c, de centum et septem acris 
terre, et viginti acris pasture, cum pertinentiis, in Old 
Stratford et Stratford-super- Avon.' This property is 
mentioned in 1639 as * all those fower yards land and a 



142 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 

halfe of arrable meadowe and pasture, with thappurten- 
aunces, lying and being in the townes, hambletts, villages, 
feilds, and grounds of Stratford-upon-Avon, Ould Strat- 
ford, Bishopton, and Welcombe,' and a like description is 
found in the later settlements. The extent of a yard 
land curiously varied even in the same localities of the 
same county ; and the facts that a hundred and seven 
acres were taken as four of them in 1602, and twenty as a 
half of one of them in 1639, show that there was formerly 
no precise idea on the subject." (H.-P. ii. 331.) 

The following is the Note of a Fine levied in 
Trinity Term (8 Jac. I. 1610) on the estate pur- 
chased by Shakespeare from the Combes : — 

" Inter Willielmum Shakespere, generosum, querentem, 
et Willielmum Combe, armigerum, et Johannem Combe, 
generosum, def orciantes, de centum et septem acris terre 
et viginti acris pasture, cum pertinenciis, in Old Stratf orde 
et Stratf orde-super- Avon ; unde placitum convencionis 
summonitum fuit inter eos, etc., scilicet, quod predicti 
Willielmus Combe et Johannes recognoverunt predicta 
tenementa, cum pertinenciis, esse jus ipsius Willielmi 
Shakespere, ut ilia que idem Willielmus habet de dono 
predictorum Willielmi Combe et Johannis, et ilia remi- 
serunt et quietumclamaverunt de ipsis Willielmo Combe 
et Johanne, et heredibus suis, predicto Willielmo Shake- 
spere et heredibus suis imperpetuum ; et preterea, idem 
Willielmus Combe concessit, pro se et heredibus suis, 
quod ipsi warantizabunt predicto Willielmo Shakespere, 
et heredibus suis, predicta tenementa, cum pertinenciis, 
contra predictum Willielmum Combe, et heredes suos, in 
perpetuum. Et ulterius idem Johannes concessit, pro se 
et heredibus suis, quod ipsi warantizabunt predicto 
Willielmo Shakespere, et heredibus suis, predicta tene- 
menta, cum pertinenciis, contra predictum Johannem, et 
heredes suos, imperpetuum. Et pro hac, etc., idem 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 143 

Willielmus Shakespere dedit predictis Willielmo Combe 
et Johanni centum libras sterlingorum." 

Of the play of « Othello " Mr. Phillipps (i. 214) 
says : — 

" A performance of ' Othello ' at the Globe in April, 1610, 
was honoured with the presence of the German ambas- 
sador and his suite ; and it was again represented at 
Court before Prince Charles, the Princess Elizabeth, and 
the Elector Palatine, in May, 1613. These scattered 
notices, accidentally preserved doubtlessly out of many 
others that might have been recorded, are indicative of its 
continuance as an acting play, — a result that may, with- 
out disparagement to the author, be attributed in some 
measure to the leading character having been assigned to 
the most accomplished tragic actor of the day, Richard 
Burbage. The name of the first performer of Iago is not 
known, but there is a curious tradition, which can be 
traced as far back as the close of the seventeenth century, 
to the effect that the part was originally undertaken by a 
popular comedian, and that Shakespeare adapted some of 
the speeches of that character to the peculiar talents of 
the actor." 

Gildon (" Reflections on Rymer's Short View of 
Tragedy/' 1694) says of this tradition : — 

" I 'm assur 'd, from very good hands, that the person 
that acted Iago was in much esteem of a comedian, which 
made Shakespear put several words and expressions into 
his part, perhaps not so agreeable to his character, to make 
the audience laugh, who had not yet learnt to endure to 
be serious a whole play." 

The following is copied from the original manu- 
script Journal, in the British Museum, of the 



144 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE. 

Secretary to the German Embassy to England in 
April, 1610 : — 

" Lundi, 30. — S. E. (minence) alia au Globe, lieu 
ordinaire ou 1 'on joue les commedies ; y fut represents 
l'histoire du More de Venise." 

"The Scourge of Folly, consisting of satyricall 
Epigram ms and others in honor of many noble and 
worthy Persons of our Land/' by John Davies of 
Hereford, was entered at Stationers' Hall on October 
8, 1610. The following lines are addressed "To 
our English Terence, Mr. Will. Shake-speare " : 

" Some say (good Will), which I in sport do sing, 
Had 'st thou not plaid some Kingly parts in sport, 
Thou had'st bin a companion for a king, 
And beene a King among the meaner sort. 
Some others raile ; but raile as they thinke fit, 
Thou hast no rayling, but a raigmng wit ; 

And honesty thou sow 'st, which they do reape, 
So to increase their stocke which they do keepe." 

The same author's " A Scourge for Paper-Per- 
secutors/' etc., appeared this year, and contained 
the following : — 

" Another (ah, Lord helpe mee !) vilifies, 
With Art of Love and how to subtilize, 
Making lewd Venus, with eternall Lines, 
To tye Adonis to her love's designs. 
Fine wit is shew 'n therein ; but finer *t were 
If not attired in such a bawdy Geare. 
But be it as it will, the coyest Dames 
In private reade it for their Closset-games ; 
For, sooth to say, the lines so draw them on 
To the venerian speculation, 
That will they, nill they (if of flesh they bee), 
They will think of it, sith loose thought is free." 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 145 

Edmund Bolton, in 1610, wrote " Hypercritica ; 
Or, a Eule of Judgment for writing or reading our 
Histories," from which the following is copied : 

" The choise of English, — as, for example, language & 
style (the apparell of matter), — hee who would penn our 
affaires in English, and compose unto us an entire body 
of them, ought to have a singular care ther of. For 
albeit our tongue hath not received dialects, or accentuall 
notes as the Greeke, nor any certaine or established rule 
either of gramer or true writing, [it] is notwithstanding 
very copious, and fewe there be who have the most proper 
graces thereof, in which the rule cannot be variable. For 
as much as the people's judgments are uncertaine, the 
books also out of which wee gather the most warrantable 
English are not many to my remembrance, of which, in 
regard they require a particular and curious tract, I for- 
beare to speake at this present. But among the chief e, or 
rather the chief e, are in my opinion these : Sr Thomas 
Moore's works ; . . . George Chapman's first seaven books 
of Iliades ; Samuell Danyell ; Michael Drayton his Hero- 
icall Epistles of England ; Marlowe his excellent fragment 
of Hero and Leander ; Shakespere, Mr. Francis Beamont, 
& innumerable other writers for the stage, and presse 
tenderly to be used in this Argument; Southwell, Parsons, 
& some fewe other of that sort." 

No plays were published in 1610. 
The Douay Bible was published this year. 
1611. Of Shakespeare's growing popularity Mr. 
Phillipps (i. 229) says : — 

" There are an unusual number of evidences of Shake- 
speare's dramatic popularity in the year 1611. "We now 
first hear of his plays of ' Macbeth,' the * Winter's Tale,' 

* Cymbeline,' and the ' Tempest.' New impressions of 

* Titus Andronicus,' ' Hamlet,' and < Pericles ' also ap- 

10 



146 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

peared in 1611, and in the same year a publisher named 
Helme issued an edition of the old play of < King John,' 
that which Shakespeare so marvellously re-dramatized, 
with the deceptive imputation of the authorship to one 
W. Sh., — a clear proof, if any were needed, of the early 
commercial value of his name." 

" Macbeth " was acted at the Globe Theatre in 
April, 1611. Dryden, in his "Essay on the Dra- 
matique Poetry of the last Age/' published in 
1672, says that there are speeches in this drama 
that were not liked by Ben Jonson : — 

" In reading some bombast speeches of Macbeth, which 
are not to be understood, he [Jonson] us'd to say that it 
was horrour; and I am much afraid that this is so." 

Dr. Simon Forraan, the celebrated astrologer, has 
recorded a graphic account of the performance of 
the play of ' Macbeth/ the only contemporary notice 
of it that has been discovered. The following is 
copied from his pamphlet (" The Bocke of Plaies, 
and Notes thereof, per Formans for common 
pollicie ") : — 

"In the Winter's Talle at the Glob, 1611, the 15 of 
Maye, Wednesday, — observe ther howe Lyontes, the 
Kinge of Cicillia, was overcom with jelosy of his wife 
with the Kinge of Bohemia, his frind, that came to see 
him j and howe he contrived his death, and wold have 
had his cupberer to have poisoned, who gave the King of 
Bohemia warning therof and fled with him to Bohemia. 
Remember also howe he sent to the orakell of Appollo, 
and the aunswer of Apollo that she was giltles, and that 
the king was jelouse, &c. ; and howe, except the child was 
found againe that was loste, the kinge shuld die without 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 147 

yssue, — for the child was caried into Bohemia, and 
there laid in a forrest, and brought up by a sheppard, and 
the Kinge of Bohemia his sonn maried that wentch ; and 
howe they fled into Cicillia to Leontes, and the sheppard, 
having showed the letter of the nobleman by whom 
Leontes sent a . . . was that child, and the Jewells found 
about her, she was knowen to be Leontes' daughter- and 
was then 16 yers old. Remember also the rog that cam 
in all tottered like Coll Pipci ; and howe he f eyned him 
sicke, and to have bin robbed of all that he had; and 
howe he cosoned the por man of all his money, and after 
cam to the shep-sher with a pedler's packe, and ther cos- 
oned them again of all their money ; and howe he changed 
apparrell with the Kinge of Bohemia his sonn ; and then 
howe he turned courtiar, &c. Beware of trustinge feined 
beggars or fawninge fellouse. 

" Of Cimbalin, King of England : remember also the 
storri of Cymbalin, King of England in Lucius tyme ; 
howe Lucius cam from Octavus Cesar for tribut, and 
being denied, after sent Lucius with a greate armi of 
souldiars, who landed at Milford Haven, and affter wer 
vanquished by Cimbalin, and Lucius taken prisoner, — 
and all by means of three outlawes, of the which two of 
them were the sonns of Cymbalin stolen from him when 
they were but two yers old, by an old man whom Cym- 
balin banished, and he kept them as his own sonns 
twenty yers with him in a cave ; and howe of them slewe 
Clotan, that was the quen's sonn, goinge to Milford 
Haven to sek the love of Innogen, the Kinge's daughter, 
whom he had banished also for lovinge his daughter ; and 
howe the Italian that cam from her love conveied himself 
into a cheste, and said yt was a chest of plate sent from 
her love and others to be presented to the kinge ; and in 
the deepest of the night, she being aslepe, he opened the 
cheste, and came forth of yt, and vewed her in her bed, 
and the markes of her body, and toke awai her braslet, 



148 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 

and after accused her of adultery to her love, &c. ; and- in 
thend howe he came with the Romains into England, 
and was taken prisoner, and after reveled to Innogen, 
who had turned herself into man's apparrell and fled to 
mete her love at Milford Haven, and chanchsed to fall on 
the cave in the wodes wrier her two brothers were ; and 
howe, by eating a sleping dram, they thought she had 
bin deed, and laid her in the wodes, and the body of 
Cloten by her in her love's apparell that he left behind 
him ; and howe she was found by Lucius, etc. 

" In Mackbeth at the Glob, the 20 of Aprill, Saturday, 
ther was to be observed, firste, howe Mackbeth and 
Bancko, two noble men of Scotland, ridinge thorowe a 
wod, the stode before them three women feiries or 
nimphes, and saluted Mackbeth, sayinge three tyms 
unto him, •' Haille, Mackbeth, King of Codon ! for thou 
shall be a kinge, but shall beget no kinges,* etc. Then 
said Bancko, l What, all to Mackbeth, and nothing to 
me ? ' ' Yes,' said the nimphes, ' haille to thee Bauko ! 
thou shall beget kinges, yet be no kinge.' And so they 
departed and cam to the courte of Scotland to Dunkin, 
King of Scotes, and yt was in the dais of Edward the 
Confessor. And Dunkin bad them both kindly wellcom, 
and made Mackbeth forthwith Prince of [Northumber- 
land, and sent him horn to his owncastell, and appointed 
Mackbeth to provid for him, for he wold sup with him the 
next dai at night, and did soe. And Mackebeth con- 
trived to kill Dunkin, and thorowe the persuasion of his 
wife did that night murder the kinge in his own castell, 
beinge his guest ; and ther were many prodigies seen that 
night and the dai before. And when Mack Beth had 
murdred the kinge, the blod on his handes could not be 
washed of by any means, nor from his wive's handes, 
which handled the bluddi daggers in hiding them, by 
which means they became both moch amazed and 
affronted. The murder being knowen, Dunkin's two 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 149 

sonns fled, — the on to England, the (other to ) Walles, 
— to save them selves ; they beinge fled, they were sup- 
posed guilty of the murder of their father, which was 
nothinge so. Then was Mackbeth crowned kinge ; and 
then he, for feare of Banko, his old companion, that he 
should beget Kinges but be no kinge himself, he con- 
trived the death of Banko, and caused him to be mur- 
dred on the way as he rode. The next night, beinge at 
supper with his noble men whom he had bid to a feaste, 
to the which also Banco should have com, he began to 
speake of noble Banco, and to wish that he wer ther; 
and as he thus did, standing up to drinck a carouse to 
him, the ghoste of Banco came and sate down in his 
cheir be-hind him ; and he, turninge about to sit down 
again, sawe the goste of Banco, which fronted him so 
that he fell into a great passion of fear and fury, utter- 
inge many wordes about his murder, by which, when 
they hard that Banco was murdred, they suspected Mack- 
bet. Then Mack Dove fled to England to the kinge 's 
sonn, and soe they raised an army and cam into Scotland, 
and at Dunstonanyse overthrue Mackbet. In the mean 
tyme, whille Macdove was in England, Mackbet slew 
Mackdove's wife and children, and after in the battelle 
Mackdove slewe Mackbet. Observe also howe Mack- 
bete's quen did rise in the night in her slepe, and walke 
and talked and confessed all, and the doctor noted her 
wordes." 

Of the foregoing curious account by Forman, Mr. 
Phillipps (i. 230) says : — 

" The eccentric Doctor appears -to have given some of 
the details inaccurately, but he could hardly have been 
mistaken in the statement that Macbeth and Banquo 
made their first appearance on horseback, — a curious 
testimony to the rude endeavors of the stage-managers of 
the day to invest their representations with something of 



150 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

reality. The weird sisters were personated by men whose 
heads were disguised by grotesque periwigs. Forman's 
narrative decides a question, which has frequently been 
raised, as to whether the Ghost of Ban quo should appear, 
or only be imagined by Macbeth. There is no doubt 
that the Ghost was personally introduced on the early 
stage as well as long afterwards, when the tragedy was 
revived by Davenant ; but the audiences of the seven- 
teenth century were indoctrinated with the common 
belief that spirits were generally visible only to those 
connected with then' object or mission, so in this play as 
in some others of the period, an artificial stimulus to 
credulity in that direction was unnecessary." 

Rude models of horses, the bodies made of can- 
vas dilated with hoops and laths, were familiar 
objects on the early English stage. 

The comedy of the " Winter's Tale " was played 
before the Court on the fifth of November. 

The performance of the tragedy of " Cymbeline," 
witnessed by Dr. Forman, probably took place in 
the spring of the year 1611. 

Shakespeare's name appears in a subscription- 
list originated at Stratford-on-Avon on the eleventh 
of September " towards the charge of prosecutyng 
the bill in Parliament for the better repayre of the 
highe waies." 

" The comedy of the < Tempest,' having most likely 
been produced at one of the Shakespearean theatres in 
1611, was represented before King James and the Court 
at Whitehall on the evening of the first of November in 
that year, the incidental music having been composed by 
Robert Johnson, one of the Royal i musicians for the 
lutes.' The record of the performance includes the ear- 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 151 

liest notice of that drama which has yet been discovered. 
It was also acted with success at the Blackf riars Theatre." 
(H.-P. i. 232.) 

" Dryden gives us two interesting pieces of information 
respecting the comedy of the * Tempest/ — the first, that 
it was acted at the Blackfriars Theatre ; the second, 
that it was successful. His words are : ' The play itself 
had formerly been acted with success in the Blackfryers.' 
(Preface to the Tempest ; Or, the Enchanted Island, 1670). 
This probably means that the comedy was originally pro- 
duced at the Blackfriars Theatre after the Children had 
left that establishment, and it is alluded to in a list of 
' some of the most ancient playes that were playd at 
Blackfriers,' — a manuscript dated in December, 1660. 
It is not at all improbable that the conspicuous position 
assigned to this comedy in the first folio is a testimony 
to its popularity, for that situation is unquestionably no 
evidence of its place in the chronological order." (H.-P. 
ii. 309,) 

" The four years and a half that intervened between 
the performance of the ' Tempest ' in 1611 and the 
author's death could not have been one of his periods of 
great literary activity. So many of his plays are known 
to have been in existence at the former date, it follows 
that there are only six which could by any possibility 
have been written after that time, and it is not likely 
that the whole of those belong to so late an era. 
These facts lead irresistibly to the conclusion that the 
poet abandoned literary occupation a considerable period 
before his decease, and, in all probability, when he dis- 
posed of his theatrical property. So long as he continued 
to be a shareholder in the Globe Theatre, it was incum- 
bent upon him to supply the company with two plays 
annually. It may therefore be reasonably inferred 
that he parted with his shares within two or three years 
after the performance above alluded to, the drama of 



152 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

< Henry the Eighth' being, most likely, his concluding 
work. 

" Amongst the six plays above-mentioned is the amus- 
ing comedy of the ' Taming of the Shrew.' Most of the 
incidents of that drama, as well as those of its exquisite 
Induction, are taken from an old farce, which was written 
at some time before May, 1594, and published in that 
year under the nearly identical title of the ' Taming of a 
Shrew.' This latter work had then been acted by the 
Earl of Pembroke's servants, and was probably well 
known to Shakespeare when he was connected with 
that company, or shortly afterwards ; for it was one 
of the plays represented at the Newington Butts Theatre 
by the Lord Admiral's and the Lord Chamberlain's 
men in the June of the same year. The period at 
which he wrote the new comedy is at present a matter 
solely of conjecture ; but its local allusions might induce 
an opinion that it was composed with a view to a con- 
templated representation before a provincial audience. 
That delicious episode, the Induction, presents us with 
a fragment of the rural life with which Shakespeare 
himself must have been familiar in his native county. 
With such animated power is it written that we almost 
appear to personally witness the affray between Marian 
Hacket, the fat ale-wife of "VTincot (the ancient pro- 
vincial name of the small village of Wilmecote), and 
Christopher Sly, to see the nobleman on his return 
from the chase discovering the insensible drunkard, and 
to hear the strolling actors make the offer of profes- 
sional services that was requited by the cordial wel- 
come to the buttery. Wincot is a secluded hamlet near 
Stratford-on-Avon, and there is an old tradition that 
the ale-house frequented by Sly was often resorted to by 
Shakespeare for the sake of diverting himself with a fool 
who belonged to a neighboring mill. Stephen Sly, one 
of the tinker's friends or relatives, was a known character 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 153 

at Stratford-on-Avon, and is several times mentioned in 
the records of that town. This fact, taken in conjunc- 
tion with the references to Wilmecote and Barton-on-the- 
Heath, definitely proves that the scene of the Induction 
was intended to be in the neighborhood of Stratford-on- 
Avon, — the water-mill tradition leading to the belief 
that Little Wilmecote, the part of the hamlet nearest to 
the poet's native town, is the Wincot alluded to in the 
comedy." (H.-P. i. 232.) 

Capell in his Notes to the " Taming of the Shrew " 
says : " Wincot is in Stratford's vicinity, where the 
memory of the ale-house subsists still; and the 
tradition goes that ? t was resorted to by Shake- 
speare for the sake of diverting himself with a fool 
who belonged to a neighbouring mill." 

" The fact of there having been a water-mill at this 
village in ancient times may be thought to give some 
colour of possibility to the tradition. Warton merely 
says that 'the house kept by our genial hostess still 
remains, but is at present a mill.' (Glossary to the Ox- 
ford edition of Shakespeare, 1770.) According to an 
unpublished letter written by Warton in 1790, he derived 
his information from what was told him, when a boy, by 
Francis Wise, — an eminent Oxford scholar, who went 
purposely to Stratford-on-Avon about the year 1740 to 
collect materials respecting the personal history of Shake- 
speare. Warton's own words may be worth giving : ' My 
note about Wilnecote I had from Mr. Wise, lladclivian 
librarian, a most accurate and inquisitive literary anti- 
quary, who, about fifty years ago, made a journey to 
Stratford and its environs to pick up anecdotes about 
Shakespeare, many of which he told me ; but which I, 
being then very young, perhaps heard very carelessly and 
have long f orgott : this I much regrett, for I am sure he 



154 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

told me many curious things about Shakespeare. He 
was an old man when I was a boy in this college. The 
place is Wylmecote, the mill, or Wilnicote, near Strat- 
ford, not Tamworth.' The anecdote, as related by Capell, 
belongs to a series of traditions that show how wide- 
spread was the belief in Warwickshire in the last century 
that the great poet was of a jovial and simple disposition ; 
and this is also assumed in the following curious state- 
ment : ' The late Mr. James West of the Treasury assured 
me that at his house in Warwickshire he had a wooden 
bench, once the favorite accommodation of Shakespeare, 
together with an earthen half-pint mug out of which he 
was accustomed to take his draughts of ale at a certain 
publick house in the neighbourhood of Stratford every 
Saturday afternoon.' * (H.-P. ii. 308.) 

"It was the general opinion in the convivial days of 
Shakespeare ' that a quart of ale is a dish for a king.' 
So impressed were nearly all classes of society by its 
attractions, it was imbibed wherever it was to be found, 
and there was no possible idea of degradation attached 
to the poet's occasional visits to the house of entertain- 
ment at Wincot. If, indeed, he had been observed in 
that village, and to pass Mrs. Hacket's door without tak- 
ing a sip of ale with the vigorous landlady, he might per- 
haps no longer have been enrolled amongst the members 
of good-fellowship. Such a notion, at all events, is at 
variance with the proclivities recorded in the famous 
crab-tree anecdote, one which is of sufficient antiquity to 
deserve a notice amongst the more trivial records of 
Shakespearean biography. It would appear from this 
tradition that the poet, one summer's morning, set out 
from his native town for a walk over Bardon Hill to the 
village of Bidford, six miles distant, a place said to have 
been then noted for its revelry. When he had nearly 
reached his destination, he happened to meet with a 

1 Steevens in Supplement to Shakespeare, 1780. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 155 

shepherd, and jocosely enquired of him if the Bidford 
Drinkers were at home. The rustic, perfectly equal to 
the occasion, replied that the Drinkers were absent, but 
that he would easily find the Sippers, and that the latter 
might perhaps be sufficiently jolly to meet his expecta- 
tions. The anticipations of the shepherd were fully 
realized, and Shakespeare, in bending his way homeward 
late in the evening, found an acceptable interval of rest 
under the branches of a crab-tree which was situated 
about a mile from Bidford. There is no great wonder 
and no special offence to record, when it is added that he 
was overtaken by drowsiness, and that he did not renew 
the course of his journey until early in the following 
morning. The whole story, indeed, when viewed strictly 
with reference to the habits and opinions of those days, 
presents no features that suggest disgrace to the principal 
actor, or imposition on the part of the narrator. With 
our ancestors the ludicrous aspect of intoxication com- 
pletely neutralized, or rather, to speak more correctly, ex- 
cluded the thought of attendant discredit. The affair 
would have been merely regarded in the light of an 
unusually good joke ; and that there is at least some 
foundation for the tale may be gathered from the fact 
that as early as the year 1762 the tree, then known as 
Shakespeare's Canopy, was regarded at Stratford-on-Avon 
as an object of great interest." (H.-P. i. 234.) 

Henry Cooper, a tradesman of Stratford-on-Avon, 
residing in Ely Street, in a letter to Garrick written 
in 1771, mentioning astroites, says : " Thees small 
stones which I have sent are to be found on a hill 
called Barn-hill, within a mild of Stratford, — the 
road that Shakespear went when he went to see his 
Bidford topers ; thees stones will swim in a delf- 
plate amongst viniger." 



156 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 

" A gentleman who visited Stratford-on-Avon in 1762 
relates how the host of the White Lion Inn took him to 
Bidford, ' and shewed me in the hedge a crab-tree called 
Shakespear's Canopy, becanse nnder it our poet slept one 
night ; for he, as well as Ben Jonson, loved a glass for 
the pleasure of society ; and he, having heard much of 
the men of that village as deep drinkers and merry 
fellows, one day went over to Bidford to take a cup with 
them. He enquired of a shepherd for the Bidford 
drinkers, who replied that they were absent, but the Bid- 
ford sippers w T ere at home, and, I suppose, continued the 
sheepkeeper, they will be sufficient for you ) and so, indeed, 
they were. He was forced to take up his lodging under 
that tree for some hours.' " 1 (H.-P. ii. 325.) 

The following are the lines said to have been 
uttered by Shakespeare upon awaking in the morn- 
ing after the sleep under the crab-tree : — 

" Piping Pebworth, dancing Marston, 
Haunted Hillborough, hungry Grafton, 
Dodging Exhall, Papist Wicksford, 
Beggarly Broom, and drunken Bidford." 

Halliwell-Phillipps says (ii. 327) of this tree : 

" From a sketch which was made by Ireland either in 
1792 or 1793, the fidelity of which was assured to me many 
years ago by persons who had seen the tree in their youth- 
ful days, it may be inferred that it was then of an unusual 
size and antiquity, and there is certainly no impossibility 
in the assumption that it was large enough in the poet's 
time to have afforded the recorded shelter. Early in the 
present century it began to decay, the foliage gradually 
disappearing, until in 1824 the only remaining vestiges, 
consisting of the trunk and a number of roots all in an 

1 British Magazine for June, 1762. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 157 

advanced stage of decay, were transferred to Bidford 
Grange. 

" Some of the later ramifications of the tale are 
sufficiently ludicrous. Thus we are told in Brewer's 
Description of the County of Warwick, 1820, p. 260, that 
< those who repeat the tradition in the neighbourhood of 
Stratford invariably assert that the whole party slept 
undisturbed from Saturday night, till the following 
Monday morning, when they were roused by workmen 
going to their labour ! According to an improved version 
of this form of the anecdote, so completely had the 
previous day been effaced from the sleeper's memory that, 
when he woke up, he rebuked a field-labourer in the 
vicinity for his desecration of the Sabbath." 

The following works were published in 1611 : 

"The most lamentable Tragedie of Titus Andronicus. 
As it hath svndry times beene plaide by the Kings 
Maiesties Seruants. London : Printed for Eedward 
White, and are to be solde at his shoppe, nere the little 
North dore of Pauls, at the signe of the Gun. 1611." 

" The First and second Part of the troublesome Raigne 
of John King of England; with the discouerie of King 
Richard Cordelions Base sonne (vulgarly named The 
Bastard Fawconbridge) ; also, the death of King Iojn at 
Swinstead Abbey, — as they were (sundry times) lately 
acted by the Queenes Maiesties Players. Written by W. 

Sh . Imprinted at London by Valentine Simmes for 

Iohn Helme, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint 
Dunstons Churchyard in Fleetestreet. 1611." 

" The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke. By 
William Shakespeare. Newly imprinted and enlarged to 
almost as much againe as it was, according to the true 
and perfect Coppy. At London : Printed for Iohn 
Smethwicke, and are to be sold at his shoppe in Saint 
Dunstons Church yeard in Fleetstreet, vnder the Diall. 
1611." 



158 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

" The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of 
Romeo and Iviiet, as it hath beene sundrie times publikely 
Acted, by the Kings Maiesties Seruants, at the ftlobe. 
Newly Corrected, augmented, and amended. London : 
Printed for Iohn Smethwicke, and are to bee sold at his 
Shop in Saint Dunstanes Church-yard, in Fleetestreete, 
vnder the Dyall." * 

" The Most Excellent And Lamentable Tragedie of 
Romeo and Iviiet, as it hath beene sundrie times publikely 
Acted, by the Kings Maiesties Seruants, at the Globe. 
Written by W. Shake-speare ; newly Corrected, augmented, 
and amended. London : Printed for Iohn Smethwicke, 
and are to bee sold at his Shop in Saint Dunstanes Church- 
yard, in Fleetestreete, vnder the Dyall." 2 

" The Late And much admired Play, Called Pericles, 
Prince of Tyre ; With the true Relation of the whole 
History, aduentures, and fortunes of the sayd Prince ; 
As also The no lesse strange and worthy accidents in the 
Birth and Life of his Daughter Mariana, — As it hath 
beene diuers and sundry times acted, by his Maiestyes 
Seruants, at the Globe on the Banck-side. By William 
Shakespeare. Printed at London by S. S. 1611." 

The Authorized version of the Bible was pub- 
lished this year. 

1612. " In the year 1612 the third edition of the 'Pas- 
sionate Pilgrim ' made its appearance, the publisher seek- 
ing to attract a special class of buyers by describing it as 
consisting of ' Certain Amorous Sonnets between Venus 
and Adonis.' These were announced as the work of 
Shakespeare; but it is also stated that to them were 
1 newly added two love-epistles, — the first from Paris to 

1 The position here given to this titlepage is conjectural, the 
edition being undated. 

2 This is the same edition as the last, with merely an alteration 
in the titlepage. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 159 

Helen, and Helen's answer back again to Paris,' the name 
of the author of the last two poems not being mentioned. 
The wording of the title might imply that the latter were 
also the compositions of the great dramatist, but they 
were in fact written by Thomas Heywood, and had been 
impudently taken from his ' Troia Britanica,' a large 
poetical work that had appeared three years previousty, 
1609." 

" A new titlepage to the ' Passionate Pilgrim ' of 1612, 
from which Shakespeare's name was withdrawn, was 
afterwards issued. There can be little doubt that this 
step was taken mainly in consequence 'of the remon- 
strances of Heywood addressed to Shakespeare, who may 
certainly have been displeased at Jaggard's proceedings, 
but as clearly required pressure to induce him to act in 
the matter. If the publisher would now so readily listen 
to Shakespeare's wishes, it is difficult to believe that he 
would not have been equally compliant had he been 
expostulated with either at the first appearance of the 
work in 1599, or at any period during the following 
twelve years of its circulation. It is pleasing to notice 
that Heywood, in observing that the poet was ignorant 
of Jaggard's intentions, entirely acquits the former of 
any blame in the matter." 

" In the course of this year the King's Servants are 
found playing at Folkestone, New Romney, and Shrews- 
bury." (H.-P. i. 236, 237, 238.) 

Dowden says that only eleven out of the twenty- 
one songs in the " Passionate Pilgrim " collection 
are certainly or possibly Shakespeare's. 

The original is preserved at Stratford of a Draft 
of a Bill of Complaint respecting the tithes, — 
Shakespeare being one of the plaintiff s, — in 1612. 
It begins thus : — 



160 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

•• Richard Lane et alii querentes, et Domimis Carewe et 
alii defendentes, in Cancellaria billa. To the Right 
Honorable Thomas Lord Ellesmere, Lord Chauncellour of 
England : In humble wise complayninge, she wen unto 
your honorable good Lordshipp, your dayly oratours 
Richard Lane, of Awston in the county of Warwicke, 
esquire, Thomas Greene, of Stratford-uppon-Avon in the 
said county of Warwicke, esquire, and William Shack- 
speare, of Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid in the said 
county of TTarwicke, gentleman, that whereas, etc." 

And ends thus : — 

" And your Lordshippes said oratours shall dayly 
pray unto thalmighty for your Lordshippes health, with 
dayly encrease in all honour and happines. Endorsed 
Lane, Greene, et Shakspeare contra W. Combe et alios 
respondentes." 

The following is copied from the Dedication to 
John Webster's "White Divel," published in 1612 : 

" Detraction is the sworne friend to ignorance. For 
mine owne part, I have ever truly cherisht my good 
opinion of other mens worthy labours, especially of that 
full and haightned stile of maister Chapman, the labor'd 
and understanding workes of maister Johnson, the no 
lesse worthy composures of the both worthily excellent 
Maister Beamont and Maister Fletcher, and lastly, with- 
out wrong last to be named, the right happy and copious 
industry of M. Shake-speare, M. Decker, and M. Hey- 
wood, — wishing what I write may be read by their light ; 
protesting that, in the strength of mine owne judg- 
ment, I know them so worthy, that, though I rest silent 
in my owne worke, yet to most of theirs I dare (without 
flattery) fix that of Martiall, — non norunt, Haec monu- 
menta mori." 

The following plays were published in 1612 : 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 161 

" The Tragedie of King Eichard the third. Contain- 
ing his treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence ; 
the pittiful murther of his innocent Nephewes ; his tyran- 
nical vsurpation ; with the whole course of his detested 
life, and most deserued death, — As it hath beene lately 
Acted by the Kings Mai es ties seruants. Newly aug- 
mented, By William Shake-speare. London : Printed by 
Thomas Creede, and are to be sold by Mathew Lawe, 
dwelling in Pauls Church-yard, at the Signe of the Foxe, 
neare S. Austins gate. 1612." 

" The Passionate Pilgrime, or Certain Amorous 
Sonnets, betweene Venus and Adonis, newly corrected 
and augmented. By W. Shakespeare. The third Edition, 
Where-unto is newly added two Loue-Epistles, — the first 
from Paris to Hellen, and Hellens answere backe againe 
to Paris. Printed by W. laggard. 1612." 

1613. " Early in the year 1613, the great dramatist 
lost his younger, most probably now his only surviving, 
brother, Richard, who was buried at Stratf ord-on-Avon on 
Thursday the fourth of February. He was in the thirty- 
ninth year of his age. Beyond the records of his baptism 
and funeral no biographical particulars respecting him 
have been discovered ; but it may be suspected that all 
the poet's brothers were at times more or less dependent 
on his purse or influence. When the parish-clerk told 
Dowdall, in 1693, that Shakespeare ' was the best of his 
family/ he used a provincial expression which implied 
not only that its other members of the same sex were 
less amiable than himself, but that they were not held in 
very favourable estimation. 

" There is no record of the exact period at which the 
great dramatist retired from the stage in favour of a 
retreat at New Place, but it is not likely that he made 
the latter a permanent residence until 1613 at the earliest. 
Had this step been taken previously, it is improbable that 

11 



162 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

he would, in the March of that year, have been anxious 
to secure possession of an estate in London, — a property 
consisting of a house and a yard, the lower part of the 
former having been then and for long previously a haber- 
dasher's shop. The premises referred to, situated within 
one or two hundred yards to the east of the Blackfriars 
Theatre, were bought by the poet for the sum of £140; 
and, for some reason or other, he was so intent on its 
acquisition that he permitted a considerable amount 
(£60) of the purchase- money to remain on mortgage. 

" The conveyance-deeds of this house bear the date of 
March the 10th, 1613, but in all probability they were not 
executed until the following day, and at the same time 
that the mortgage was effected. The latter transaction 
was completed in Shakespeare's presence on the eleventh ; 
and that the occurrence took place in London or in the 
immediate neighbourhood is apparent from the fact that 
the vendor deposited the original conveyance on the same 
day for enrollment in the Court of Chancery. The 
independent witnesses present on the occasion consisted 
of Atkinson, who was the Clerk of the Brewers' Company, 
and a person of the name of Overy. To these were 
joined the then usual official attestors, the scrivener who 
drew up the deeds, and his assistant, — the latter, one 
Henry Lawrence, having the honour of lending his seal to 
the great dramatist, who thus, to the disappointment of 
posterity, impressed the wax of both his labels with the 
initials H. L. instead of those of his own name. 

" This Blackfriars estate was the only London property 
that Shakespeare is known for certain to have ever 
owned. It consisted of a dwelling-house, the first story of 
which was erected partially over a gateway ; and either at 
the side or back, included in the premises, was a diminu- 
tive enclosed plot of land. ... It is scarcely necessary to 
observe that every vestige of the Shakespearean house was 
obliterated in the great fire of 1666. So complete was the 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 163 

destruction of all this quarter of London that perhaps the 
only fragment of its ancient buildings that remained to 
the present century is a doorway of the old church or 
priory of the Blackfriars." (H.-P. i. 238.) 

The deed begins as follows : — 

" This Indenture made the tenthe day of March, in the 
yeare of our Lord God, according to the computacion of 
the Church of England, one thowsand six hundred and 
twelve, and in the yeares of the reigne of our sovereigne 
Lord James, by the grace of God king of England, Scot- 
land, Fraunce, and Ireland, defender of the faithe, &c, 
that is to saie, of England, Fraunce, and Ireland the 
tenth, and of Scotland the six and f ortith, — Betweene 
Henry Walker, citizein and minstrell of London, of th' 
one partie, and William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon- 
Avon in the countie of Warwick, gentleman, William 
Johnson, citizein and vintener of London, John Jackson 
and John Hemmyng of London, gentlemen, of th' other 
partie ; Witnesseth, etc." 

The name "William Shakespeare/' so spelled, 
occurs in the deed fifteen times. The above copy 
was held by the vendor. The counterpart, the 
same except the signatures, closes thus : — 

"In witnesse whereof the said parties to theis inden- 
tures interchaungablie have sett their seales. Yeoven 
the day and yeares first above written. — William 
Shakspere, Wm. Johnson, Jo. Jackson. Sealed and 
delivered by the said William Shakespeare, William 
Johnson, and John Jackson, in the presence of Will : 
Atkinson, Ed. Ouery, Robert Andre wes, scr, Henry Law- 
rence, servant to the same scr." 

The mortgage is dated March 11, 1612-1613. 
The name " William Shakespeare " occurs in it 



164 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

seven times, but the signature is "Wm, Shak- 
spere." The index to the enrollment of the 
mortgage reads thus : " Indentura facta Willielmo 
Shakespeare, Willielmo Johnson, Johanni Jackson, 
et Johanni Hemynge, per Henricum Walker." 

" The Globe Theatre was destroyed by fire on Tuesday, 
June the 29th, 1613. The great dramatist was probably 
at Stratford-on-Avon at the time of this lamentable oc- 
currence. At all events, his name is not mentioned in 
any of the notices of the calamity, nor is there a proba- 
bility that he was the author of the new drama on the 
history of Henry the Eighth, which was then produced, 
— the first one on the public stage in which the efforts of 
the dramatist were subordinated to theatrical display. 
It is true that some of the historical incidents in the 
piece that was in course of representation when the 
accident occurred are also introduced into Shakespeare's 
play, but it is not likely that there was any other resem- 
blance between the two works. Amongst the actors 
engaged at the theatre on this fatal day were Burbage, 
Hemmings, Condell, and one who enacted the part of the 
Fool, — the last two being so dilatory in quitting the 
building that fears were entertained for their safety. 
Up to this period, therefore, it may reasonably be in- 
ferred that the stage-fool had been introduced into every 
play on the subject of Henry the Eighth, so that when 
Shakespeare's pageant-drama appeared some time after- 
wards, the Prologue is careful to inform the audience 
that there was to be a novel treatment of the history 
divested of some of the former accompaniments." (H.-P. 
i. 241.) 

A letter from Thomas Lorkins to Sir Thos. 
Puckering reads : — 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE. 165 

" London, this last of June, 1613. No longer since then 
yesterday, while Bourbege his companie were acting at 
ye Globe the play of Hen : 8, and there shooting of cer- 
tayne chambers l in way of triumph, the fire catch'd & 
fastened uppon the thatch of ye house, and there burned 
so furiously as it consumed the whole house, & all in lesse 
then two houres (the people having enough to doe to save 
themselves)." 

The following is copied from " A Sonnett upon 
the pittiful burneing of the Globe playhowse in 
London," written in the early part of the seven- 
teenth century : — 

" Out runne the knightes, out runne the lordes, 
And there was great adoe ; 
Some lost their hattes, and some their swordes ; 
Then out runne Burbidge too. 
The reprobates, thoughe druncke on munday, 
Prayed for the Foole and Henry Condye. 

Oh, sorrow, pittifull sorrow ! and yett all this is true. 

" The perrywigges and drumme-heades frye, 
Like to a butter firkin ; 
A wofull burneing did betide 
To many a good buffe jerkin. 

Then with swolne eyes, like druncken Flemminges, 
Distressed stood old stuttering Heminges. 

Oh, sorrow, pittifull sorrow ! and yett all this is true/' 

" When Shakespeare's Henry the Eighth was produced, 
the character of the king was undertaken by Lowin, a 
very accomplished actor. This fact, which is stated on 
the authority of an old manuscript note in a copy of the 
second folio preserved at Windsor Castle, is confirmed by 
Downes in 1708, and by Roberts the actor in a tract pub- 
lished in 1729, — the latter observing, < I am apt to think 
he [Lowin] did not rise to his perfect and most exalted 

1 The "chambers" shot were small cannon or mortars. 



166 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

state in the theatre till after Burbage, tho' he play'd what 
we call second and third characters in his time, and par- 
ticularly Henry the Eighth originally, from an observa- 
tion of whose acting it in his later days Sir William 
Davenant convey'd his instructions to Mr. Betterton.' 
According to Downes, Betterton was instructed in the 
acting of the part by Davenant, 'who had it from old 
Mr. Lowin,.that had his instructions from Mr. Shake- 
speare himself.' 

" Shortly before the destruction of the Globe Theatre 
in 1613, and in the same month of June, there was a 
malicious bit of gossip in circulation at Stratford-on- 
Avon respecting Mrs. Hall, Shakespeare's eldest daugh- 
ter, and one Ralph Smith. The rumour was traced to 
an individual of the name of Lane, who was accordingly 
summoned to the Ecclesiastical Court to atone for the 
offence. The case was opened at Worcester on July the 
15th, 1613, the poet's friend, Robert Whatcot, being the 
chief witness on behalf of the plaintiff. Nothing beyond 
the formal proceedings in the suit has been recorded, 
but there can be little doubt that Lane was one of those 
mean social basilisks who attack the personal honour of 
any one whom they may happen to be offended with. 
Slanderers, however, are notorious cowards. Neither 
the defendant nor his proctor ventured to appear before 
the court, and, in the end, the lady's character was vin- 
dicated by the excommunication of the former on July 
the 27th." (H.-P. i. 243.) 

The accounts of moneys expended by Lord 
Stanhope, Treasurer of the Chamber, between 
Michaelmas, 1612, and Michaelmas, 1613, contain 
the following : — 

" Item : paid to John Heminges uppon the Cowncells 
warrant dated att Whitehall xx. die Maij., 1613, for pre- 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 167 

sentinge before the Princes Highnes, the Lady Elizabeth 
and the Prince Pallatyne Elector, fowerteene severall 
playes; viz., one playe called Filaster, one other called 
the Knott of Fooles, one other Much adoe abowte noth- 
inge, the Mayeds Tragedy, the merye dyvell of Edmon- 
ton, the Tempest, A kinge and no kinge, the Twins 
Tragedie, the Winters Tale, Sir John Falstafe, the Moore 
of Venice, the Nobleman, Coesars Tragedye, and one 
other called Love lyes a bleedinge, — all which playes 
weare played within the tyme of this accompte, viz., paid 
the some of iiij. xiij. li. vj. s. viij. d. 

" Item : paid to the said John Heminges uppon the lyke 
warrant, dated att Whitehall xx. die Maij., 1613, for pre- 
senting^ sixe severall playes ; viz., one play called a badd 
beginininge makes a good endinge, one other called the 
Capteyne, one other the Alcumist, one other Cardenno, 
one other the Hotspurr, and one other called Benedicte 
and Betteris, — all played within the tyme of this ac- 
compte, viz., paid fortie powndes, and by waye of his 
Majesties rewarde twentie powndes. In all, lx. li" 

Joseph Fletcher, in 1613, in a poem called 
"Christens Bloodie Sweat/' makes the following 
allusion to Antonio, in the " Merchant of Venice " : 

11 He di'd indeed not as an actor dies, — 
To die to-day, and live again to-morrow ; 
In shew to please the audience, or disguise 
The idle habit of iuforced sorrow. 

The crosse His stage was, and He plaid the part 
Of one that for his friend did pawne his heart." 

Only one play was published this year : — 

" The History of Henrie the fourth ; With the Battell 
at Shrewseburie, betweene the King and Lord Henrie 
Percy, surnamed Henrie Hotspur of the North ; With 
the humorous conceites of Sir John Falstaffe. Newly 



168 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

corrected by W. Shakespeare. London : Printed by W. 
W. for Mathew Law, and are to be sold at his shop in 
Panles Churchyard, neere vnto S. Augustines Gate, at 
the signe of the Foxe. 1613." 

This is the copyright entry for this year : — 

"1613-4, Primo Martij, 1613. Roger Jackson, — en- 
tred for his coppies, by consent of Mr. John Harrison the 
eldest, and by order of a Court, these 4 bookes f ollowinge ; 
viz., Mascalls first booke of Cattell ; Mr. Dentes sermon 
of repentance ; Recordes Arithmeticke ; Lucrece." 

1614. " In July John Combe, one of the leading in- 
habitants of Stratford-on-Avon, died bequeathing Shake- 
speare the then handsome legacy of £5. It is clear, 
therefore, that at the time the will was made there was 
no unfriendliness between the two parties, and that the 
lines commencing, ' Ten-in-the-hundred,' if genuine, must 
have been composed at a later period. The first two lines 
of that mock elegy are, however, undoubtedly spurious, 
and are omitted in the earliest discovered version of it, 
dated 1630, preserved at Thirlestane House. There is, 
moreover, no reason for believing that Combe was an 
usurious money-lender, ten per cent being then the legal 
and ordinary rate of interest. That rate was not lowered 
until after the death of Shakespeare." (H.-P. i. 244.) 

The Globe Theatre had been rebuilt, at a large 
cost, and recently opened. Chamberlain, writing 
from London on June 30, 1614, to a lady at Venice, 
says : " I heare much speach of this new play- 
house, which is saide to be the fayrest that ever 
was in England. " 

" In the autumn there was great excitement at Strat- 
ford-on-Avon respecting an attempted enclosure of a large 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 169 

portion of the neighboring common-fields. The design 
was resisted by the Corporation. William Combe, the 
squire of Welcombe, originated the movement. It ap- 
pears most probable that Shakespeare was allured to the 
unpopular and unsuccessful side by Combe's agent, one 
Replingham, guaranteeing him from prospective loss. 
On December the 23d the Corporation addressed a letter 
of remonstrance to Shakespeare. The poet was then in 
London, having arrived there on Wednesday, November 
the 16th . . . 

" We are indebted for the knowledge of the former 
circumstances to the diary of Thomas Greene, the town- 
clerk of Stratford-on-Avon, who has recorded in that 
manuscript the following too brief, but still extremely 
curious, notices of the great dramatist in connection with 
the subject of the enclosures : — 

" ' a. Jovis, 17 Nov., my cosen Shakspeare comyng yes- 
terday to towne, I went to see him how he did. He told 
me that they assured him they ment to inclose noe fur- 
ther then to Gospell Bushe, and soe upp straight (leavyng 
out part of the Dyngles to the field) to the Gate in Clop- 
ton hedge, and take in Salisburyes peece ; and that they 
mean in Aprill to survey the land, and then to gyve satis- 
faccion, and not before; and he and Mr. Hall say they 
think ther will be nothyng done at all. 

" < b. 23 Dec. A hall. Lettres wryten, — on to Mr. 
Maneryng, another to Mr. Shakspeare, with almost all 
the companies handes to eyther. I alsoe wrytte of my- 
self to my cosen Shakspear the coppyes of all our actes, 
and then also a not of the inconvenyences wold happen 
by the inclosure. 

"<c. 9 Jan. 1614. Mr. Replyngham, 28 Octobris, ar- 
ticle with Mr. Shakspear ; and then I was putt in by 
T. Lucas. 

" <• d. 11 Januarii, 1614. Mr. Manyryng and his agree- 
ment for me with my cosen Shakspeare. 



170 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

" ' e, Sept. (1615). Mr. Shakspeare tellyiig J. Greene 
that I was not able to beare the encloseing of Welcombe.* 

" Greene was in London at the date of the first entry, 
and at Stratford at that of the second. The exact day 
on which the fifth memorandum was written is not given, 
but it was certainly penned before the fifth of September. 
Why the last observation should have been chronicled at 
all is a mystery ; but the note has a mournful interest as 
the register of the latest recorded spoken words of the 
great dramatist. They were uttered in the autumn of 
the year 1615, when the end was very near at hand. 

" Had it not been for its untimely termination, the 
concluding period of Shakespeare's life would have been 
regarded with unmixed pleasure. It ' was spent,* observes 
Howe, ' as all men of good sense will wish theirs may be, 
in ease, retirement, and conversation of his friends.' The 
latter were not restricted to his provincial associates, for 
he retained his literary intimacies until the end ; while it 
is clear, from what is above recorded, that his retirement 
to Stratford did not exclude an occasional visit to the 
metropolis. He had, moreover, the practical wisdom to 
be contented with the fortune his incessant labours had 
secured. He had gathered, writes his first real biogra- 
pher (Xicholas Rowe), * an estate equal to his occasion, 
and, in that, to his wish,' — language which suggests a 
traditional belief that the days of accumulation had 
passed. In other words, he was one of the few who 
know when to commence the enjoyment of acquired 
wealth, avoiding the too common error of desiring more 
when in full possession of whatever there is in the ability 
of money to contribute to happiness." (H.-P. i. 217.) 

The articles of agreement between Shakespeare 
and William Replingham, by which the latter 
agreed to compensate the poet should loss accrue 
to him by the enclosures, are preserved. They are 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 171 

marked, "Coppy of the articles with Mr. Shak- 
speare," and begin : — 

"Vicesimo octavo die Octobris, anno Domini 1614, 
Articles of agreement indented made betweene William 
Shackespeare, of Stretford, in the county of Warwicke, 
gent., on the one partye, and William Replingham, of 
Greete Harborowe in the Countie of Warwicke, gent., on 
the other partie, the daye and yeare abovesaid." 

" Rubbe and a great Cast, Epigrams by Thomas 
Freeman, gent./' London, 1614, contains the 
following : — 

" To Master William Shakespeare : 

Shakespeare, that nimble Mercury thy braine 

Lulls many hundred Argus eyes asleepe. 

So fit, for so thou fashionest thy vaine ; 

At th' horse-foote fountain thou hast drunk full deepe, 

Vertues or vice the theame to thee all one is. 

Who loves chaste life, there 's Lucrece for a teacher ; 

Who list read lust, there 's Venus and Adonis, 

True model of the most lascivious leatcher. 

Besides in plaies thy wit winds like Meander ; 

When needy, new-composers borrow more 

Thence Terence doth from Plautus or Meander. 

But to praise thee aright I want thy store ; 

Then let thine owne works thine owne worth upraise, 
And help t' adorn thee with deserved Baies." 

Ben Jonson in " Bartholomew Eayre. Induction," 
1614, allndes to Titns Andronicns, " a servant mon- 
ster" (Caliban), and " Tempests." 

" John Stow's Annales, or generall Chronicle of 
England ; continued to the end of 1614, by Edmond 
Howes," contains the following passage : — 

"Our moderne and present excellent poets, which 
worthely florish in their owne workes, and all of them in 



172 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE. 

my owne knowledge, lived togeather in this Queenes 
raigne. According to their priorities, as neere as I could, 
I have orderly set downe ; viz., George Gascoigne, es- 
quire ; Thomas Church-yard, esquire ; Sir Edward Dyer, 
knight ; Edmond Spencer, esquire ; Sir Philip Sidney, 
knight ; Sir John Harrington, knight ; Sir Thomas Chal- 
loner, knight ; Sir Francis Bacon, knight ; Sir John 
Davie, knight ; Master John Lillie, gentleman ; Maister 
George Chapman, gentleman; M. W. Warner, gentle- 
man ; M. Willi. Shakespeare, gentleman ; Samuell Dan- 
iell, esquire ; Michaell Draiton, esquire of the bath ; M. 
Christopher Mario, gen. ; M. Ben j amine Johnson, gentle- 
man ; John Marston, esquier ; M. Abraham Frauncis, 
gen. ; master Frauncis Meers, gentle. ; master Josua 
Silvester, gentle. ; master Thomas Deckers, gentleman ; 
M. John Flecher, gentle. ; M. John Webster, gentleman ; 
M. Thomas Heywood, gentleman ; M. Thomas Middle- 
ton, gentleman ; M. George Withers." 

" The Ghost of Bichard the Third/' by Christo- 
pher Brooke, 1614, has this tribute : — 

" To him that impt my fame with Clio's quill, 
Whose magick rais'd me from oblivion's den ; 
That writ my storie on the Muses hill, 
And with my actions dignifi'cl his pen ; 
He that from Helicon sends many a rill, 
Whose nectared veines are drunke by thirstie men ! 

Crown 'd be his stile with fame, his head with bayes ; 

And none detract, but gratulate, his praise." 

The following is from Sir William Drummond's 
(1614) Works : — 

"The authors I have seen on the subject of love are 
Sidney, Daniel, Drayton, Spenser. The last we have are 
Sir W. Alexander and Shakespeare, who have lately 
published their Works." 

No play was published in 1614. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 173 

1615. There is no further reference to events in 
the year 1615 in the narrative portion of Mr. 
Phillipps's " Outlines." 

Eichard Brathwaite's "A Strappado for the 
Divell," 1615, "gives us recollections of four of 
Shakespeare's works, Venus and Adonis ; Eichard 
III. ; Two Gentlemen of Verona ; and Pericles." 
(Smith's Ingleby, p. 112.) 

" New and choice characters, of severall authors, 
with the Wife. Written by Syr Thomas Overburie," 
1615, contains this allusion: "A Purveiour of 
Tobacco. Call him a Broker of Tobacco, he 
scornes the title ; hee had rather be tearmed a 
cogging Merchant. Sir John Falstaffe robb'd with 
a bottle of Sacke ; so doth hee take mens purses, 
with a wicked roule of Tobacco at his girdle." 

There was published this year — 

" The Tragedie of King Eichard the Second ; With new 
additions of the Parliament Sceane, and the deposing of 
King Eichard. As it hath been lately acted by the 
Kinges Maiesties seruants, at the. Globe. By William 
Shake-speare. At London : Printed for Mathew Law, 
and are to be sold at his shop in Paules Churchyard, at 
the signe of the Foxe. 16 15. ,> 

1616. Copyright entry : " 1616-7, 16 Febr. 1616, 
Er. 14. Mr. Barrett, Assigned ouer vnto him by 
Mr. Leake, and by order of a full Courte, Venus and 
Adonis." 

" It is not likely that the poet, with his systematic fore- 
thought, had hitherto neglected to provide for the ulti- 
mate devolution of his estates ; but, as usual, it is only the 



174 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

latest will that has been preserved. This important record 
was prepared in January, 1616, either by or under the 
directions of Francis Collins, a solicitor then residing at 
Warwick ; and it arjpears, from the date given to the 
superscription and from some of the erasures in the 
manuscript itself, that it was a corrected draft ready for 
an engrossment that was to have been signed by the 
testator on Thursday, the twenty-fifth of that month. 
For some unknown reason, but most probably owing to 
circumstances relating to Judith's matrimonial engage- 
ment, the appointment for that day was postponed, at 
Shakespeare's request, in anticipation of further instruc- 
tions, and before Collins had ordered a fair copy to be 
made. The draft therefore remained in his custody, his 
client being then l in perfect health,' and taking no doubt 
a lively interest in all that concerned his daughter's 
marriage. Under such conditions a few weeks easily pass 
away unheeded, so that when he was unexpectedly seized 
with a dangerous fever in March, it is not very surprising 
that the business of the will should be found to have been 
neglected. Hence it was that his lawyer was hurriedly 
summoned from Warwick, that it was not considered 
advisable to wait for the preparation of a regular tran- 
script, and that the papers were signed after a few more 
alterations had been hastily effected. An unusual num- 
ber of witnesses were called in to secure the validity of 
the informally written document, its draftsman, according 
to the almost invariable custom at that time, being the 
first to sign. 

u The corrected draft of the will was so hastily revised 
at Shakespeare's bedside, that even the alteration of the 
day of the month was overlooked. It is probable that 
the melancholy gathering at Xew Place happened some- 
what later than the twenty-fifth of March, the fourth 
week after a serious attack of fever being generally the 
most fatal period. We may at all events safely assume 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 175 

that if death resulted from such a cause on April the 23d, 
the seizure could not have occurred much before the end 
of the preceding month. It is satisfactory to know that 
the invalid's mind was as yet unclouded, several of the 
interlineations that were added on the occasion having 
obviously emanated from himself ; and it is not necessary 
to follow the general opinion that the signatures betray 
the tremulous hand of illness, although portions of them 
may indicate that they were written from an inconvenient 
position. It may be observed that the words hy me, which, 
the autographs excepted, are the only ones in the poet's 
handwriting known to exist, appear to have been penned 
with ordinary firmness." (H.-P. i. 252.) 

The Stratford church register contains these 
entries : — 

" 1615-6. M. Feabruary 10. Tho. Queeny tow Judith 
Shakspere. 

1616. F. April 25. Will. Shakspere, gent. 

The will is copied below. The words in Italics 
were interlined : — 

" Vicesimo quinto die (Januarii, erased) Marlii, anno 
regni nostri Jacobi, nunc regis Anglie, &c, decimo quarto, 
et Scotie xlix annoque Domini 1616. 

" T. Wmi. Shackspeare. — In the name of God, amen ! 
I, William Shackspeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the 
countie of Warr. gent., in perfect health and memorie, 
God be praysed, doe make and ordayne this my last will 
and testament in manner and forme f olloweing, that ys to 
saye, First, I comend my soule into the handes of God my 
Creator, hoping and assuredlie beleeving, through thonelie 
merittes of Jesus Christe, my Saviour, to be made par- 
taker of lyfe everlastinge, and my bodye to the earth 
whereof yt ys made. Item : I gyve and bequeath unto my 



176 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

(sonne in L, erased) daughter Judyth one hundred and 
f yftie poundes of lawfull English money, to be paied unto 
her in manner and forme followeing, that ys to saye, one 
hundred poundes in discharge of her marriage porcion 
within one yeare after my deceas, with consideracion after 
the rate of twoe shillinges in the pound for soe long tyme 
as the same shal be unpaied unto her after my deceas, 
and the fyftie poundes residewe thereof upon her sur- 
rendring of, or gyring of such sufficient securitie as the 
overseers of this my will shall like of to surrender or 
graunte, all her estate and right that shall discend or 
come unto her after my deceas, or that shee nowe hath, of, 
in, or to, one copiehold tenemente with thappurtenaunces 
lyeing and being in Stratford-upon-Avon aforesaied in 
the saied countie of Warr., being parcell or holden of the 
mannour of Rowington, unto my daughter Susanna Hall 
and her heires for ever. Item : I gyve and bequeath 
unto my saied daughter Judith one hundred and fyftie 
poundes more, if shee or anie issue of her bodie be 
lyvinge att thend of three yeares next ensueing the dale 
of the date of this my will, during which tyme my execu- 
tours to paie her consideracion from my deceas accord- 
ing to the rate aforesaied ; and if she dye within the 
saied terme without issue of her bodye, then my will 
ys, and I doe gyve and bequeath one hundred poundes 
thereof to my neece Elizabeth Hall, and the fif tie poundes 
to be sett fourth by my exe cut ours during the lief of my 
sister Johane Harte, and the use and proffitt thereof 
cominge shal be payed to my saied sister Jone, and after 
her deceas the saied l.li shall remaine amongst the 
children of my saied sister equallie to be devided amongst 
them ; but if my saied daughter Judith be lyving att 
thend of the saied three yeares, or anie yssue of her bodye, 
then my will ys and soe I devise and bequeath the saied 
hundred and fyftie poundes to be sett out by my executours 
and overseers for the best benefitt of her and her issue, 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE. 177 

and the stock not to be paied unto her soe long as she shalbe 
marryed and covert baron (by my executours and over- 
seers, erased), but my will ys that she shall have the con- 
sideracion yearelie paied unto her during her lief, and, 
after her deceas, the saied stock and consideracion to bee 
paid to her children, if she have anie, and if not, to her 
executours or assignes, she lyving the saied terme after 
my deceas ; Provided that if such husbond as she shall att 
thend of the saied three yeares be marryed unto, or att 
anie after, doe sufficientle assure unto her and thissue of 
her bodie landes awnswereable to the porcion of this my 
will gyven unto her, and to be adjudged soe by my 
executours and overseers, then my will ys that the saied 
cl.li shalbe paied to such husbond as shall make such 
assurance, to his owne use. Item : I gyve and bequeath 
unto my saied sister Jone xx.li, and all my wearing 
apparrell, to be paied and delivered within one yeare after 
my deceas ; and I doe will and devise unto her the house 
with thappurtenaunces in Stratford, wherein she dwell- 
eth, for her naturall lief, under the yearelie rent of xij.d. 
Item : I gyve and bequeath unto her three sonns, William 

Harte, Harte, and Michaell Harte, fyve poundes a 

peece, to be payed within one yeare after my deceas (to 
be sett out for her within one yeare after my deceas by 
my executours, with thadvise and direccions of my over- 
seers, for her best proffitt untill her marriage, and then 
the same with the increase thereof to be paied unto her, 
erased). Item : I gyve and bequeath unto (her, erased) 
the saied Elizabeth Hall all my plate except my brod silver 
and gilt bole, that I now have att the date of this my will. 
Item : I gyve and bequeath unto the poore of Stratford 
aforesaied tenn poundes; to Mr. Thomas Combe my 
sword ; to Thomas Russell esquier fyve poundes, and to 
Frauncis Collins of the borough of Warr. in the countie of 
Warr., gent., thirteene poundes sixe shillinges and eight 
pence, to be paied within one yeare after my deceas. 

12 



178 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

Item : I gyve and bequeath to (Mr. Richard Tyler thelder, 
erased) Hamlett Sadler xxvj.s. viij.d. to buy him a ringe ; 
to William Raynoldes, gent., xxcj.s. viij.d. to buy him a ring ; 
to my god-son William Walker xx.s in gold ; to Anthonye 
Nashe, gent, xxvj.s. viij.d., and to Mr. John Xashe xxvj.s. 
viij.d (in gold, erased) ; and to my fellowes, John He?nynges, 
Richard Burbage, and Henry Cundell, xxvj.s. viij.d. a peece 
to buy them ringes. Item : I gyve, will, bequeath, and 
devise unto my daughter Susanna Hal], for better enabling 
her to performe this my will, and towardes the performans 
thereof, all that capitall messuage or tenemente, with 
thappurtenaunces, in Stratford aforesaied, called the Xewe 
Place, wherein I nowe dwell, and twoe messuages or tene- 
mentes with happurtenaunces, scituat, lyeing, and being 
in Henley streete within the borough of Stratford afore- 
saied; and all my barnes, stables, orchardes, gardens, 
landes, tenementes, and hereditamentes whatsoever, scit- 
uat, lieing, and being, or to be had, receyved, perceyved, or 
taken, within the townes, hamlettes, villages, fieldes, and 
groundes of Stratford-upon-Avon, Oldstratford, Bushop- 
ton, and Welcombe, or in anie of them in the saied coun- 
tie of Warr ; and alsoe all that messuage or tenemente 
with thappurtenaunces wherein one John Robinson 
dwelleth, scituat, lyeing, and being in the Blackfriers in 
London nere the Wardrobe; and all other my landes, 
tenementes, and hereditamentes whatsoever, — to have 
and to hold all and singuler the saied premisses with their 
appurtenaunces unto the saied Susanna Hall for and 
during the terme of her naturall lief, and after her deceas, 
to the first sonne of her bodie lawf ullie yssueing, and to 
the heires males of the bodie of the saied first sonne law- 
f ullie yssueinge, and for defalt of such issue, to the second 
sonne of her bodie lawf ullie yssueinge, and (of, erased) to 
the heires males of the bodie of the saied second sonne 
lawf ullie issueinge, and for defalt of such heires to the 
third sonne of the bodie of the saied Susanna lawfullie 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE. 179 

yssueinge, and of the heires males of the bodie of the saied 
third sonne lawfullie yssueinge, and for defalt of such is- 
sue, the same soe to be and remaine to the fourth (sonne, 
erased), fyfth, sixte, and seaventh sonnes of her bodie 
lawfullie issueing one after another, and to the heires 
males of the bodies of the saied fourth, fifth, sixte, and 
seaventh sonnes lawfullie yssueing, in such manner as yt 
ys before lymitted, to be and remaine to the first, second, 
and third sonns of her bodie, and to their heires males, 
and for defalt of such issue, the saied premisses to be 
and remaine to my sayed neece Hall and the heires males 
of her bodie lawfullie yssueing, and for defalt of such 
issue, to my daughter Judith, and the heires males of her 
bodie lawfullie issueinge, and for defalt of such issue, to 
the right heires of me the saied William Shackspeare for 
ever. Item : I gyve unto my wiefe my second best bed with 
the furniture. Item: I gyve and bequeath to my saied 
daughter Judith my broad silver gilt bole. All the rest 
of my goodes, chattels, leases, plate, jewels, and household 
stuife whatsoever, after my dettes and legasies paied, and 
my funerall expences discharged, I gyve, devise, and 
bequeath to my sonne-in-lawe, John Hall, gent., and my 
daughter Susanna, his wief, whom I ordaine and make 
executours of this my last will and testament. And I doe 
intreat and appoint the saied Thomas Russell, esquier, 
and Frauncis Collins, gent., to be overseers hereof, and 
doe revoke all former wills, and publishe this to be my 
last will and testament. In witnes whereof I have here- 
unto put my (seale, erased) hand the daie and yeare first 
above written. — By me, William Shakspeare. 

" Witnes to the publishing hereof, — Fra. Collyns ; 
Julius Shawe ; John Robinson ; Hamnet Sadler ; Robert 
Whattcott." 

Mr. Phillipps says that " the terms in which the 
soul was devised are copied from a book of forms. 



180 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

They were taken from one of the ordinary formulas 
that were used by the solicitors of the period, as 
will appear from the following extract from a 
customary ' forme of a will ' given in West's First 
Part of Simboleography, ed= 1605, sect. 643 : ' I, R. 
L., of &c, sicke of bodie, but of good and perfect 
memory, God be praised, doe make and ordaine 
this, my last will and testament, in maner and 
forme following, that is to say: first, I commend 
my soule into the handes of God, my maker, hoping 
assuredly, through the only merites of Jesus Christ, 
my Saviour, to bee made partaker of life everlast- 
ing, and I commende my bodie to the earth whereof 
it is made.' " 

" Shakespeare, in devising his real estates to one child, 
followed the example of his maternal grandfather and 
the general custom of landed proprietors. He evidently 
desired that their undivided ownership should continue 
in the family. 

" Following the bequests to the Quineys are those to 
the poet's sister Joan, then in her forty-seventh year and 
five pounds a-piece to his nephews, her three children, — 
lads of the respective ages of sixteen, eleven, and eight. 
To this lady, who became a widow very shortly before 
his own decease, he leaves, besides a contingent rever- 
sionary interest, his wearing apparel, twenty pounds in 
money, and a life-interest in the Henley Street property, 
the last being subject to the manorial rent of twelve- 
pence. This limitation of real estate to Mrs. Hart, the 
anxiety displayed to secure the integrity of the little 
Rowington copyhold, and the subsequent devises to his 
eldest daughter, exhibit very clearly his determination to 
place under legal settlement every foot of land that he 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 181 

possessed. With this object in view, he settles his estate 
in tail male, with the usual remainders over, all of which, 
however, so far as the predominant intention was con- 
cerned, turned out to be merely exponents of the vanity 
of human wishes. Before half a century had elapsed, all 
possibility of the continuance of the family entail had 
been dispelled. 

"The most celebrated interlineation is that in which 
Shakespeare leaves his widow his ' second-best bed with 
the furniture/ the first-best being that generally reserved 
for visitors, and one which may possibly have descended 
as a family heir-loom, becoming in that way the unde- 
visable property of his eldest daughter. Bedsteads were 
sometimes of elaborate workmanship, and gifts of them 
are often to be met with in ancient wills. The notion of 
indifference to his wife, so frequently deduced from the 
above-mentioned entry, cannot be sustained on that ac- 
count. So far from being considered of trifling import, 
beds were even sometimes selected as portions of com- 
pensation for dower ; and bequests of personal articles of 
the most insignificant description were never formerly 
held in any light but that of marks of affection. Amongst 
the smaller legacies of former days may be enumerated 
kettles, chairs, gowns, hats, pewter cups, feather bolsters, 
and cullenders. In the year 1642 one John Shakespeare 
of Budbrook, near Warwick, considered it a sufficient 
mark of respect to his father-in-law to leave him ' his best 
boots.' 

" The expression * second-best ' has, however, been so 
repeatedly and so seriously canvassed to the testator's 
prejudice, it is important to produce evidence of its 
strictly inoffensive character. Such evidence is to be 
found in instances of its testamentary use in cases where 
an approach to a disparaging significance could not have 
been entertained. Thus the younger Sir Thomas Lucy 
of Charlecote, in a will made in the year 1600, bequeathed 



182 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 

to his son Richard ' my second-best horse and furnyture ; ' 
and amongst the legacies given by Bartholomew Hatha- 
way to his son Edmund, in 1621, is ' my second brass 
pott/ But there is another example that is conclusive in 
itself, without other testimony, of the position which is 
here advocated. It is in the will, dated in April, 1610, 
of one John Harris, a well-to-do notary of Lincoln, who, 
while leaving his wife a freehold estate and other prop- 
erty, also bequeaths to her ' the standing bed-stead in the 
litle chaumber, with the second-best featherbed 1 have, with a 
whole furniture thereto belonging, and allso a trundle-bed- 
sted with a featherbed, and the furniture thereto belong- 
ing, and six payer of sheetes, three payer of the better 
sorte and three payer of the meaner sorte.' This ex- 
tremely interesting parallel disposes of the most plausible 
reason that has ever been given for the notion that there 
was at one time some kind of estrangement between 
Shakespeare and his Anne. Let us be permitted to add 
that the opportunity which has thus presented itself of 
refuting such an aspersion is more than satisfactory, — 
it is a consolation ; for there are few surer tests of the 
want either of a man's real amiability or of his moral 
conduct than his incompetence, excepting in very special 
cases, to remain on affectionate terms with the partner 
of his choice. And it is altogether impossible that there 
could have been an exculpatory special case in the present 
instance." 

" The interests of the survivor were nearly always duly 
considered in the voluntary settlements formerly so often 
made between husband and wife ; but even if there had 
been no such arrangements in this case, the latter would 
have been well provided for by free-bench in the Rowing- 
ton copyhold, and by dower on the rest of the property." 
(H.-P. i. 255, 257, 260.) 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 183 

The following is the " free-bench " provision re- 
ferred to by Mr. Phillipps, as taken from the " Cus- 
toms of Eowington Manor " (1614) : — 

" The first wief onlie shall have for her free-bench dur- 
ing her life all such landes and tenementes as her hus- 
band dyed seised of in possession of inheritance, yf so be 
her said husband have done noe act nor surrender to the 
contrary thereof, and shee shal be admitted to her said 
free-bench payeing onlie a penny for a fine as aforesaid." 

We continue to quote from Mr. Phillipps : — 

" Independently of the bequests that amply provided 
for his children and sister, there are found in the will a 
very unusual number of legacies to personal friends ; and 
if some of its omissions, such as those of reference to the 
Hathaways, appear to be mysterious, it must be recol- 
lected that we are entirely unacquainted with family 
arrangements, the knowledge of some of which might 
explain them all. It has, moreover, been objected that 
' the will contains less of sentiment than might be wished/ 
— that is to say, it may be presumed, by those who fancy 
that the great dramatist must have been, by virtue of his 
art, of an aesthetic and sentimental temperament. When 
Mr. West of Alscot was the first, in 1747, to exhibit a 
biographical interest in this relic, the Rev. Joseph Greene, 
master of the grammar-school of Stratford-on-Avon, who 
made a transcript for him, was also disappointed with 
its contents, and could not help observing that it was 
< absolutely void of the least particle of that spirit 
which animated our great poet. It might be thought 
from this impeachment that the worthy preceptor ex- 
pected to find it written in blank-verse. 

" The preponderance of Shakespeare's domestic over his 
literary sympathies is strikingly exhibited in this final 
record. Not only is there no mention of Drayton, Ben 



184 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

Jonson, or any of his other literary friends, but an entire 
absence of reference to his own compositions. When 
these facts are considered, adjunctively with his want of 
vigilance in not having previously secured authorized pub- 
lications of any one of his dramas, and with other episodes 
of his life, it is difficult to resist the conviction that he 
was indifferent to the posthumous fate of his own writ- 
ings. The editors of the first Folio speak, indeed, in a 
tone of regret at his death having rendered a personal 
edition an impossibility ; but they merely allude to this as 
a matter of fact, or destiny, and as a reason for the devo- 
lution of the task upon themselves. They nowhere say, 
as they might naturally have done had it been the case, 
that the poet himself had meditated such an undertaking, 
or even that the slightest preparations for it had been 
made during the years of his retirement. They dis- 
tinctly assure us, however, that Shakespeare was in the 
habit of furnishing them with the autograph manuscripts 
of his plays, so that if he had retained transcripts of them 
for his own ultimate use, or had afterwards collected 
them, it is reasonable to assume that they would have 
used his materials, and not been so careful to mention 
that they themselves were the only gatherers." 

" The poet was educated under the Protestant direction, 
or he would not have been educated at all. But there is 
no doubt that John Shakespeare nourished all the while 
a latent attachment to the old religion ; and although, 
like most unconverted conformists of ordinary discretion 
who were exposed to the inquisitorial tactics of the 
authorities, he may have attempted to conceal his views 
even from the members of his own household, yet still, 
however determinately he may have refrained from giv- 
ing them expression, it generally happens in such cases 
that a wave from the religious spirit of a parent will 
imperceptibly reach the hearts of his children and exer- 
cise more or less influence on their perceptions. And 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 185 

this last presumption is an important consideration in 
assessing the degree of credit to be given to the earliest 
notice that has come down to us respecting the character 
of Shakespeare's own belief, — the assertion of Davies 
that ' he died a Papist.' That this was the local tradition 
in the latter part of the seventeenth century does not 
admit of rational question. If the statement had ema- 
nated from a man like Prynne, addressing fanatics whose 
hatred of a stage-player would if possible have been 
intensified by the knowledge that he was a Romanist, 
then indeed a legitimate suspicion might have been 
entertained of the narrator's integrity ; but here we have 
the testimony of a sober clergyman, who could have had 
no conceivable motive for deception, in what is obviously 
the casual note of a provincial hearsay. An element of 
fact in this testimony must be accepted in a biography 
in which the best, in this instance the only, direct evi- 
dence takes precedence over theories that are based on 
mere credibilities. At the same time it is anything but 
necessary to conclude that the great dramatist had very 
strong or pronounced views on theological matters. If 
that were the case, it is almost certain that there would 
have been some other early allusion to them, and perhaps 
in himself less of that spirit of toleration for every kind 
of opinion which rendered him at home with all sorts 
and conditions of men, — as well as less of that freedom 
from inflexible preconceptions that might have affected 
the fidelity of his dramatic work. Many will hold that 
there was sufficient of those qualities to betray a general 
indifference to creeds and rituals; and, at all events, 
whatever there was of Catholicism in his faith did not 
exclude the maintenance -of affectionate relations with 
his ultra-protestant son-in-law. There is nothing in the 
will, in the list of witnesses, in the monumental inscrip- 
tion, in selection of friends, in the history of his profes- 
sional career, in the little that tells of his personal 



186 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

character, — there is nothing, in short, in a single one of 
the contemporary evidences to indicate that he ever 
entered any of the circles of religious partisanship. As- 
suming, as we fairly may, that he had a leaning to the 
faith of his ancestors, we may yet be sure that the incli- 
nation was not of a nature that materially disturbed the 
easy-going acquiescence in the conditions of his surround- 
ing world that added so much to the happiness of his 
later days." 

" Amongst the numerous popular errors of our ances- 
tors was the belief that fevers often resulted from con- 
vivial indulgences. This was the current notion in 
England until a comparatively recent period, and its prev- 
alence affected the traditional history of the poet's last 
illness. The facts are these : Late in the March of this 
calamitous year, or, accepting our computation, early in 
April, Shakespeare and his two friends, Drayton and Ben 
Jonson, were regaling themselves at an entertainment in 
one of the taverns at Stratford-on-Avon. It is recorded 
that the party was a jovial one; and according to a late 
but apparently genuine tradition, when the great dra- 
matist was returning to Xew Place in the evening, he 
had taken more wine than was conducive to pedestrian 
accuracy. Shortly or immediately afterwards he was 
seized by the lamentable fever which terminated fatally 
on Tuesday, April the 23d, 1616, — a day which, accord- 
ing to our present mode of computation, would be the 
third of May. The cause of the malady, then attributed 
to undue festivity, would now be readily discernible in 
the wretched sanitary conditions surrounding his resi- 
dence. If truth, and not romance, is to be invoked, 
were there the woodbine and sweet honeysuckle within 
reach of the poet's death-bed, their fragrance would have 
been neutralized by their vicinity to middens, fetid 
water-courses, mud-walls, and piggeries." (H.-P. i. 261, 
261, 267.) 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 187 

"The Chapel Lane. This narrow road, known also 
formerly as Walker Street, or Dead Lane, skirted one end 
of Shakespeare's house and the longest side of his gar- 
den. Evidences of the insalubrious state of the lane in 
the poet's time are, therefore, of interest in estimating 
the probable cause of his fatal illness. The following 
entries respecting the former state of the lane are ex- 
tracted from the records of Stratford and from the rolls 
of the manor-court : ' 1554. That every the tenauntes 
or ther famyly from hensfurthe do carry ther mucke to 
the commen dun ghy lies appwntyd, or elles into Mey- 
chyn's yard or in the gravell pyttes in Chappell Lane. 
1556. Thomas Godwyn, fletchar, Sir William Brogden, 
clericus, for not scouryng ther gutter in Ded Lone they 
be amersyd. 1558. That non dyg from hensfurthe eny 
gravell in the gravell pyttes in Chappell Lane under the 
peyne vj. s. viij. d. That the chamburlens do ryd the 
mukhyll in Chappell Lane, nye unto the Chappell at 
the goodwyf Walker's hous end, before the Assensyon 
day, under the peyn of vj. s. viij. d. 1560. That every 
tenaunt in Ded Lone do scoure and kep cleane ther 
dyches and the lane before ther soylles from tyme to 
tyme.' " (H.-P. ii. 141.) 

" The funeral was solemnized on the following Thurs- 
day, April the 25th, when all that was mortal of the great 
dramatist was consigned to its final resting-place in the 
beautiful parish church of his native town. His remains 
were deposited in the chancel, the selection of that local- 
ity for the interment being due to the circumstance of 
its then being the legal and customary burialplace of the 
owners of the tithes. 

" The grave is situated near the northern wall of the 
chancel, within a few paces of the ancient charnel-house, 
the arch of the doorway that opened to the latter, with 
its antique corbels, still remaining. The sepulchre was 
covered with a slab that bore the following inscription : 



188 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

Good frend, for Tesvs sake forbeare 
To digg the dvst eneloased heare ; 
Bleste be the man that spares thes stones, 
And cvrst be he that moves my bones, — 

lines which, according to an early tradition, were selected 
by the poet himself for his epitaph. There is another 
early but less probable statement that they were the 
poet's own composition; but, at all events, it may be 
safely gathered that they originated in some way from 
an aversion on his part to the idea of a disturbance of his 
remains. It should be remembered that the transfer of 
bones from graves to the charnel-house was then an ordi- 
nary practice at Stratford-on-Avon. There has long been 
a tradition that Shakespeare's feelings on this subject 
arose from a reflection on the ghastly appearance of that 
receptacle, which the elder Ireland, writing in the year 
1795, describes as then containing 'the largest assem- 
blage of human bones' he had ever beheld. But whether 
this be the truth, or if it were merely the natural wish of 
a sensitive and thoughtful mind, it is a source of con- 
gratulation that the simple verses should have protected 
his ashes from sacrilege. The nearest approach to an 
excavation into the grave of Shakespeare was made in 
the summer of the year 1796, in digging a vault in the 
immediate locality, when an opening appeared which was 
presumed to indicate the commencement of the site of the 
bard's remains. The most scrupulous care, however, was 
taken not to disturb the neighboring earth in the slightest 
degree, — the clerk having been placed there, until the 
brickwork of the adjoining vault was completed, to pre- 
vent anyone making an examination. Xo relics whatever 
were visible through the small opening that thus pre- 
sented itself ; and as the poet was buried in the ground, 
not in a vault, the chancel earth, moreover, formerly 
absorbing a large degree of moisture, the great proba- 
bility is that dust alone remains. This consideration 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 189 

may tend to discourage an irreverent opinion expressed 
by some, that it is due to the interests of science to un- 
fold to the world the material abode which once held so 
great an intellect. It is not many years since a phalanx 
of trouble-tombs, lanterns and spades in hand, assembled 
in the chancel at dead of night, intent on disobeying the 
solemn injunction that the bones of Shakespeare were 
not to be disturbed. But the supplicatory lines prevailed. 
There were some amongst the number, who, at the last 
moment, refused to incur the warning condemnation, and 
so the design was happily abandoned. 

" The honours of repose, which have thus far been con- 
ceded to the poet's remains, have not been extended to 
the tombstone. The latter had, by the middle of the last 
century, sunk below the level of the floor, and about 
ninety years ago had become so much decayed as to sug- 
gest a vandalic order for its removal, and in its stead to 
place a new slab, one which marks certainly the locality 
of Shakespeare's grave and continues the record of the 
farewell lines, but indicates nothing more. The original 
memorial has wandered from its allotted station no one 
can tell whither, — a sacrifice to the insane worship of 
prosaic neatness, that mischievous demon whose votaries 
have practically destroyed so many of the priceless relics 
of ancient England and her gifted sons." (H.-P. i. 267.) 

"The Philosopher's Satyrs/' by Bobert Anton, 
1616, alludes to Cleopatra and names "Comedies of 
errors." 

The only publication this year was " The Bape 
of Lvcrece, by Mr. William Shakespeare ; newly 
Beuised. London : Printed by T. S. for Boger 
Iackson, and are to be solde at his shop neere the 
Conduit in Fleet-street. 1616." 

This entry completes the list of plays and poems, 



190 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

seventy -two in number, written by Shakespeare 
and published in his lifetime. Mr. Phillipps says 
that works iC merely with the poet's initials have not 
been admitted. . . . This list of the contemporary 
editions of Shakespeare's poems and dramas will 
give a fair idea of the extent in one direction of 
the literary popularity that he enjoyed in his own 
lifetime." 

" The poet's bereaved family now consisted of his 
widow, the Anne Hathaway of his youth ; his elder 
daughter, Susanna, and her husband, John Hall ; his 
other daughter, Judith, and her husband, Thomas Qui- 
ney ; his sister Joan Hart, and her three sons, T\ llliam, 
Thomas, and Michael ; and his only grandchild, Eliza- 
beth Hall, a little girl in the ninth year of her age. 

" Mr. Hall was in London in the following June, and 
on the twenty-second of that month he proved his father- 
in-law's will at the Archbishop of Canterbury's registry, 
an office then situated near St. Paul's. He also produced 
at the same time an inventory of the testator's household 
effects ; but not a fragment of this latter document is 
known to be in existence. The testament itself is writ- 
ten upon what is termed pot-paper, — a material then com- 
monly used by solicitors for their drafts, and so called on 
account of its water-mark being either a pot or a jug. . . . 

" The Halls, who were the executors and chief legatees, 
made New Place their established residence soon after 
the poet's decease. Mr. John Hall, as he is almost inva- 
riably termed in the Stratford records, was a Master of 
Arts, but he never received the honour of a medical 
degree. His reputation, however, was independent of 
titles, for no country doctor ever achieved a greater pop- 
ularity. His advice was solicited in every direction, and 
he was summoned more than once to attend the Earl and 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 191 

Countess of Northampton at Ludlow Castle, a distance of 
over fourty miles, — no trifling journey along the bridle- 
paths of those days. And even in such times of fierce 
religious animosities, the desire to secure his advice out- 
weighed all prejudices; for, notwithstanding his avowed 
Protestantism, it is recorded by the Linacre professor, in 
1657, that < such as hated him for his religion often made 
use of him.' It is clear, indeed, that after the death of 
Shakespeare, whatever may have been the case previ- 
ously, he openly exhibited strong religious tendencies in 
the direction of Puritanism ; and these may have led to 
an indifference for the fate of any dramatic manuscripts 
that might have come into his hands. . . . 

" Anything like a private library, even of the smallest 
dimensions, was then of the rarest occurrence, and that 
Shakespeare ever owned one at any time of his life is 
exceedingly improbable. The folios of Holinshed and 
Plutarch, — the former in the edition of 1586 and the 
latter that of 1595, — are amongst the few volumes that 
can be positively said to have been in his own hands. In 
that age of commonplace books it must not be too hastily 
assumed that individual passages, such as that he adapted 
from Montaigne, were taken from the works themselves. 

" It is in the narrative of a circumstance that occurred 
at New Place a few years after Hall's death that we obtain 
the only interesting personal glimpse we are ever likely to 
have of Shakespeare's eldest daughter. It exhibits her in 
one direction as a true scion of the poet, — a shrewd person 
of business, caring more for gold than for books, albeit 
she was somewhat disturbed at the notion of parting with 
any of the latter that had been written by her husband, 
to whom she was warmly attached. During the civil 
wars, about the year 1642, a surgeon named James Cooke, 
attending in his professional capacity on a detachment 
stationed at Stratford-bridge, was invited to New Place to 
examine the books which the doctor had left behind him. 



192 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

' After a view of them,' as he observes, Mrs. Hall ' told me 
she had some books left by one that professed physic with 
her husband for some money. I told her, if I liked them, 
I would give her the money again. She brought them 
forth, amongst which there was this, with another of the 
authors, both intended for the press. I, being acquainted 
with Mr. Hall's hand, told her that one or two of them 
were her husband's, and showed them her ; she denied ; I 
affirmed, till I perceived she began to be offended ; at last 
I returned her the money.' By the word 'this,' Cooke 
refers to the manuscript Latin medical case-book which 
he translated into English, and published in 1657. The 
conversation here recorded would appear to show that 
Mrs. Hall's education had not been of an enlarged char- 
acter ; that books and manuscripts, even when they were 
the productions of her own husband, were not of much 
interest to her. Were it otherwise, it would be difficult 
to account for the pertinacity with which she insisted 
upon the book of cases not being in the doctor's hand- 
writing; for his calligraphy is of an uniform and 
somewhat peculiar description, not readily to be mis- 
taken for any of the ordinary styles of writing then in use. 
It is very possible, however, that the affixion of her 
signature to a document was the extent of her chiro- 
graphical ability, for the art of writing was then rare 
amongst the ladies of the middle class, and her sister was 
a marks-woman. 1 Such an educational defect would of 
course have passed unnoticed in those days, and could 
not have affected the estimation in which she was held 
for a high order of intelligence, religious fervour, and 
sympathetic charity, — 

Witty above her sexe, but that 's not all,— 
Wise to salvation was good Mistris Hall ; 
Something of Shakespere was in that, but this 
Wholy of Him with whom she 's now in blisse. 

1 One who, not being able to write, makes her mark instead of 
writing her name. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 193 

Then, Passenger, ha 'st ne're a teare 

To weepe with her that wept with all, — 

That wept, yet set her selfe to chere 
Them up with comforts cordiall ? 

Her love shall live, her mercy spread, 

When thou ha'st nere a teare to shed, — 

lines engraved, by the direction of some loving hand, on 
the gravestone that records her decease on July the 11th, 
1619. The term < witty' is of course here used in the old 
sense of brightly intelligent. . . . 

" The only child of the Halls, Mistress Elizabeth as she 
is described in the nuptial register, with the title usually 
given in former days to single ladies, was married at 
Stratford-on-Avon in April, 1626, to Thomas Nash, a re- 
sident of that town and a man of considerable property. 
Born in 1593, he was in his youth a student at Lincoln's 
Inn, and had no doubt been all his life well acquainted 
with the bride's family, both his father and uncle having 
been personal friends of Shakespeare. Mrs. Nash became 
a widow in 1647; but about two years afterwards she 
married John Barnard, a gentleman of wealth and posi- 
tion in the county of Northampton. Leaving no issue by 
either husband, the lineal descent from the poet termi- 
nated at her death in the year 1670. . . . 

" Although few of us imagine that the homely lines on 
Shakespeare's gravestone were his own composition, there 
can be little doubt that they owe their position to an 
affectionate observance of one of his latest wishes. 
Destitute even of a nominal record, and placed in a line 
of descriptive and somewhat elaborate family memorials, 
it is difficult to believe that an inscription, so unique in 
its simplicity, could have another history. And it was, in 
all probability, the designedly complete isolation of these 
verses that suggested to his relatives the propriety of rais- 
ing an eligible monument in the immediate vicinity, on 
the only spot, indeed, in which there could have been 

13 



194 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

erected a cenotaph that harmonized with the associations 
of his grave. 

" This monument was erected on the northern wall of 
the chancel, at an elevation of some five feet above the 
pavement, and within a few paces of the grave. Expense 
does not appear to have been spared in its preparation ; 
but there is no display of vulgar ostentation, the whole 
being admirably suited for the main object of the 
design, — the formation of a niche for the reception of a 
life-sized bust. The precise history of the construction 
of the effigy is unknown ; but there is an old tradition to 
the effect that the artist had the use of a posthumous 
cast of the face of his subject. If this were the case, it 
may be safely assumed that when John Hall, the executor 
and son-in-law, was in London in June, a few weeks after 
Shakespeare's decease, he took the opportunity of leaving 
the cast in the hands of a person on whom he thought 
that he could best rely for the production of a satisfactory 
likeness. He accordingly selected an individual whose 
place of business was near the western door of St. Sa- 
viour's church, within a few minutes walk of the Globe 
Theatre, and therefore one to whom the poet's appearance 
was no doubt familiar. The name of this sculptor was 
Gerard Johnson, the son of a native of Amsterdam who 
had settled in England as < a tombe-maker ' in the 
previous reign, and who had died at Southwark a few 
years previously. 

" The exact time at which the monument was erected 
in the church is unknown, but it is alluded to by Leonard 
Digges as being there in the year 1623. The bust must, 
therefore, have been submitted to the approval of the Halls, 
who could hardly have been satisfied with a mere fanci- 
ful image. There is, however, no doubt that it was an 
authentic representation of the great dramatist ; but it has 
unfortunately been so tampered with in modern times 
that much of the absorbing interest with which it would 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 195 

otherwise have been surrounded has evaporated. It was 
originally painted in imitation of life, — the face and 
hands of the usual flesh colour, the eyes a light hazel, 
and the hair and beard auburn. The realization of the 
costume was similarly attempted by the use of scarlet for 
the doublet, black for the loose gown, and white for the 
collar and wristbands. But colours on stone are only of 
temporary endurance ; and not only had so large a portion 
of them disappeared in the lapse of a hundred and thirty 
years, but so much decay was observable in parts of the 
effigy that it was considered advisable in 1748 to have 
it entirely renovated. It is of course impossible at this 
day to assess the extent of the mischief that may have 
been perpetrated on that occasion ; but that it was very 
considerable may be inferred from a contemporary account 
of the directions given to the artist, who was instructed 
to ' beautify ' as well as ' repair/ and to make the whole 
'as like as possible to what it was when first erected.' 
The bust, which represents the poet in the act of composi- 
tion, had also been deprived of the fore-finger of the right 
hand, a pen, and a fragment of the adjoining thumb, — 
all of which were restored at the same time in new 
material. After a while these pieces of stone again fell 
off ; and two of them, those belonging to the finger and 
thumb, the pen thenceforth being represented by a quill, 
were refashioned by one William Roberts, of Oxford, in 
1790 ; and shortly afterwards, that is to say, in 1793, 
Malone persuaded the vicar to allow the whole of the 
bust to be painted in white. It remained in this last- 
mentioned state for many years, but in 1861 there was a 
second imitation of the original colouring. This step 
was induced by the seriously adverse criticism to which 
the operation of 1793 had been subjected ; but although 
the action then taken has been so frequently condemned, 
it did not altogether obliterate the semblance of an intel- 
lectual human being, and this is more than can be said 



196 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

of the miserable travesty which now distresses the eye 
of the pilgrim. 

" In estimating the degree of affection that suggested 
the order for this elaborate monument, it will be desirable 
to bear in mind the strong Puritanical tendencies of the 
Halls. They were members of a sect who held everything 
connected with the stage in wild abhorrence ; so that it 
must have required all the courage inspired by a loving 
memory to have dictated the erection not only of an 
unusually handsome memorial, but of one which pro- 
claimed, in the midst of their religious community, the 
transcendent literary merits of a dramatist. Upon a 
rectangular tablet, placed below the bust, are engraven 
the following lines : — 

IYDICIO PYLIVM, GENIO SGCRATEM, ARTE MARONEM, 
TERRA TEGIT, PGPVLVS M.ERET, GLYMPVS HABET. 

STAY PASSENGER, WHY GGEST THOV BY SO FaST, 
READ, IF THOV CANST, WHOM ENVIOVS DEATH HATH PLAST 
WITHIN THIS MONVMENT, SHAKSPEARE, WITH WHOME 
QVICK NATVRE DIDE ; WHOSE NAME DOTH DECK YS. TOMBE 
FAR MORE THEN COST ; SITH ALL YT. HE HATH WRITT 
LEAVES LIVING ART BVT PAGE TO SERVE HIS WITT. 

obiit ano. doi 1616. 
jEtatis 53. die 23 ap. 

" It is not likely that these verses were composed either 
by a Stratfordian, or by any one acquainted with their 
destined position, for otherwise the writer could hardly 
have spoken of Death having placed Shakespeare ' within 
this monument.' However that may be, it is certain that 
they must have been inscribed with the full sanction of 
his eldest daughter, who, according to tradition, was at 
the sole expense of the memorial." (H.-F. i. 271, 274, 
275, 279, 281.) 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 197 

Nicholas Eowe wrote the first biography of 
Shakespeare. It was published in 1709. A part 
of it is taken up with an examination of the 
plays. The biographical portion is copied below, 
with the exception of the two or three extracts 
already given : — 

" It seems to be a kind of respect due to the memory of 
excellent men, especially of those whom their wit and 
learning have made famous, to deliver some account of 
themselves, as well as their works, to posterity. For this 
reason, how fond do we see some people of discovering any 
little personal story of the great men of antiquity, their 
families, the common accidents of their lives ; and even 
their shape, make, and features have been the subject of 
critical enquiries. How trifling soever this curiosity may 
seem to be, it is certainly very natural; and we are hardly 
srtisfy'd with an account of any remarkable person till we 
have heard him describ'd even to the very cloaths he 
wears. As for what relates to men of letters, the know- 
ledge of an author may sometimes conduce to the better 
understanding his book ; and tho' the works of Mr. Shake- 
spear may seem to many not to want a comment, yet I 
fancy some little account of the man himself may not be 
thought improper to go along with them. 

" He was the son of Mr. John Shakespear, and was born 
at Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, in April, 1564. 
His family, as appears by the register and publick writ- 
ings relating to that town, were of good figure and fashion 
there, and are mention'd as gentlemen. His father, who 
was a considerable dealer in wool, had so large a family, 
ten children in all, that, tho' he was his eldest son, he 
could give him no better education than his own employ- 
ment. He had bred him, 't is true, for soiiib time at a 
free-school, where 't is probable he acquir'd that little 
Latin he was master of ; but the narrowness of his 



198 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

circumstances, and the want of his assistance at home, 
forc'd his father to withdraw him from thence, and 
unhappily prevented his further proficiency in that 
language. 

" Upon his leaving school, he seems to have given in- 
tirely into that way of living which his father propos'd 
to him ; and in order to settle in the world after a family 
manner, he thought fit to marry while he was yet very 
young. His wife was the daughter of one Hathaway, 
said to have been a substantial yeoman in the neigh- 
bourhood of Stratford. In this kind of settlement he 
continu'd for some time, till an extravagance that he was 
guilty of forc'd him both out of his country and that way 
of living which he had taken up ; and tho' it seem'd at 
first to be a blemish upon his good manners, and a mis- 
fortune to him, yet it afterwards happily prov'd the oc- 
casion of exerting one of the greatest genius's that ever 
was known in dramatick poetry. He had, by a mis- 
fortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill 
company ; and amongst them, some that made a frequent 
practice of deer-stealing engag'd him with them more 
than once in robbing a park that belong'd'to Sir Thomas 
Lucy of Cherlecot, near Stratford. For this he was 
prosecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, somewhat 
too severely ; and in order to revenge that ill usage, he 
made a ballad upon him. And tho' this, probably the 
first essay of his poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been 
so very bitter that it redoubled the prosecution against 
him to that degree that he was obliged to leave his business 
and family in Warwickshire for some time, and shelter 
himself in London. 

" It is at this time, and upon this accident, that he is 
said to have made his first acquaintance in the play-house. 
He was receiv'd into the company then in being at first in 
a very mean rank ; but his admirable wit, and the natural 
turn of it to the stage, soon distinguish'd him, if not as an 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 199 

extraordinary actor, yet as an excellent writer. His name 
is printed, as the custom was in those times, amongst those 
of the other players, before some old plays, but without 
any particular account of what sort of parts he us'd to 
play ; and tho' I have inquir'd, I could never meet with 
any further account of him this way than that the top of 
his performance was the ghost in his own Hamlet. I 
should have been much more pleas'd to have learn'd, from 
some certain authority, which was the first play he wrote ; 
it would be without doubt a pleasure to any man, curious 
in things of this kind, to see and know what was the first 
essay of a fancy like Shakespear's. Perhaps we are not 
to look for his beginnings, like those of other authors, 
among their least perfect writings. Art had so little and 
Nature so large a share in what he did, that, for ought I 
know, the performances of his youth, as they were the 
most vigorous and had the most tire and strength in 'em, 
were the best. I would not be thought by this to mean 
that his fancy was so loose and extravagant as to be 
independent of the rule and government of judgment; 
but that what he thought was commonly so great, so 
justly and rightly conceiv'd in itself, that it wanted little 
or no correction, and was immediately approv'd by an 
impartial judgment at the first sight. Mr. Dryden seems 
to think that ' Pericles ' is one of his first plays ; but there 
is no judgment to be form'd on that, since there is good 
reason to believe that the greatest part of that play was 
not written by him, tho' it is own'd some part of it cer- 
tainly was, particularly the last act. But tho* the order 
of time in which the several pieces were written be 
generally uncertain, yet there are passages in some few of 
them which seem to fix their dates. So the chorus in the 
beginning of the fifth act of ' Henry V.,' by a compliment 
very handsomely turn'd to the Earl of Essex, shows the 
play to have been written when that lord was general for 
the queen in Ireland ; and his elogy upon Queen Eliza- 



200 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

beth, and her successor King James, in the latter end of 
his ' Henry VIII.,' is a proof of that play's being written 
after the accession of the latter of those princes to the 
crown of England. Whatever the particular times of his 
writing were, the people of his age, who began to grow 
wonderfully fond of diversions of this kind, could not but 
be highly pleas'd to see a genius arise amongst 'em of so 
pleasurable, so rich a vein, and so plentifully capable of 
furnishing their favourite entertainments. Besides the 
advantages of his wit, he was in himself a good-natur'd 
man, of great sweetness in his manners, and a most agree- 
able companion ; so that it is no wonder if with so many 
good qualities he made himself acquainted with the 
best conversations of those times. Queen Elizabeth had 
several of his plays acted before her, and without doubt 
gave him many gracious marks of her favour. It is that 
maiden princess plainly whom he intends by ' a fair ves- 
tal, throned by the west ; ' and that whole passage is 
a compliment very properly brought in, and very hand- 
somely apply 'd to her. She was so well pleas'd with that 
admirable character of Falstaff in the two parts of ' Henry 
the Fourth,' that she commanded him to continue it for 
one play more, and to shew him in love. This is said to 
be the occasion of his writing the 'Merry Wives of 
Windsor.' How well she was obey'd, the play itself is 
an admirable proof. Upon this occasion it may not be 
improper to observe that this part of Falstaff is said to 
have been written originally under the name of Oldcastle ; 
some of that family being then remaining, the Queen was 
pleas'd to command him to alter it, upon which he made 
use of Falstaff. The present offence was indeed avoided ; 
but I don't know whether the author may not have been 
somewhat to blame in his second choice, since it is certain 
that Sir John Falstaff, who was a Knight of the Garter, 
and a lieutenant-general, was a name of distinguish 'd 
merit in the wars hi France in Henry the Fifth's and 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 201 

Henry the Sixth's times. What grace soever the Queen 
confer'd upon him, it was not to her only he ow'd the 
fortune which the reputation of his wit made. He had 
the honour to meet with many great and uncommon 
marks of favour and friendship from the Earl of South- 
ampton, famous in the histories of that time for his 
friendship to the unfortunate Earl of Essex. It was to 
that noble lord that he dedicated his • Venus and Adonis,' 
the only piece of his poetry which he ever publish'd him- 
self, tho' many of his plays were surrepticiously and 
lamely printed in his lifetime. There is one instance so 
singular in the magnificence of this patron of Shakespear's, 
that, if I had not been assur'd that the story was handed 
down by Sir William d'Avenant, who was probably very 
well acquainted with his affairs, I should not have ventur'd 
to have inserted : that my Lord Southampton at one time 
gave him a thousand pounds to enable him to go through 
with a purchase which he heard he had a mind to, — a 
bounty very great, and very rare at any time, and almost 
equal to that profuse generosity the present age has 
shown to French dancers and Italian eunuchs. 

" What particular habitude or friendships he contracted 
with private men I have not been able to learn, more than 
that every one who had a true taste of merit, and could 
distinguish men, had generally a just value and esteem 
for him. His exceeding candor and good-nature must 
certainly have inclin'd all the gentler part of the world to 
love him, as the power of his wit oblig'd the men of the 
most delicate knowledge and polite learning to admire 
him. Amongst these was the incomparable Mr. Edmond 
Spencer, who speaks of him, in his ' Tears of the Muses,' 
not only with the praises due to a good poet, but even 
lamenting his absence with the tenderness of a friend. 
The passage is in Thalia's complaint for the decay of 
dramatick poetry, and the contempt the stage then lay 
under. I know some people have been of opinion that 



202 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

Shakespear is not meant by ' Willy ' in the first stanza of 
these verses, because Spencer's death happen'd twenty 
years before Shakespear 's. But, besides that the char- 
acter is not applicable to any man of that time but him 
self, it is plain by the last stanza that Mr. Spencer does not 
mean that he was then really dead, but only that he had 
withdrawn himself from the publick, or at least withheld 
his hand from writing, out of a disgust he had taken at 
the then ill taste of the town and the mean condition of 
the stage. Mr. Dryden was always of opinion these 
verses were meant of Shakespear, and 't is highly prob- 
able they were so, since he was three and thirty years 
old at Spencer's death, and his reputation in poetry must 
have been great enough before that time to have deserv'd 
what is here said if him. 

" His acquaintance with Ben Jonson began with a 
remarkable piece of humanity and good-nature. Mr. 
Jonson, who was at that time altogether unknown to the 
world, had offer'd one of his plays to the players in order 
to have it acted ; and the persons into whose hands it was 
put, after having turn'd it carelessly and superciliously 
over, were just upon returning it to him with an ill-natur'd 
answer that it would be of no service to their company, 
when Shakespear luckily cast his eye upon it, and found 
something so well in it as to engage him first to read it 
through, and afterwards to recommend Mr. Jonson and 
his writings to the publick. After this they were pro- 
fess'd friends ; tho' I don't know whether the other ever 
made him an equal return of gentleness and sincerity. 
Ben was naturally proud and insolent, and in the days 
of his reputation did so far take upon him the supremacy 
in wit, that he could not but look with an evil eye upon 
any one that seem'd to stand in competition with him ; 
and if at times he has affected to commend him, it has 
always been with some reserve, insinuating his uncorrect- 
ness, a careless manner of writing, and want of judgment. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 203 

The praise of seldom altering or blotting out what he 
■writ, which was given him by the players who were the 
first publishers of his works after his death, was what 
Jonson could not bear ; he thought it impossible, perhaps, 
for another man to strike out the greatest thoughts in the 
finest expression, and to reach those excellences of poetry 
with the ease of a first imagination which himself with 
infinite labour and study could but hardly attain to. 
Jonson was certainly a very good scholar, and in that had 
the advantage of Shakespear; tho' at the same time I 
believe it must be allow'd that what Nature gave the 
latter was more than a ballance for what books had given 
the former ; and the judgment of a great man upon this 
occasion was, I think, very just and proper. . . . Jonson 
did indeed take a large liberty, even to the transcribing 
and translating of whole scenes together, and sometimes, 
with all deference to so great a name as his, not altogether 
for the advantage of the authors of whom he borrow'd ; and 
if Augustus and Virgil were really what he has made 'em 
in a scene of his * Poetaster,' they are as odd an emperor 
and a poet as ever met. Shakespear, on the other hand, 
was beholding to nobody further than the foundation of 
the tale ; the incidents were often his own, and the writ- 
ing intirely so. There is one play of his, indeed, the 
6 Comedy of Errors,' in a great measure taken from the 
' Menoechmi ' of Plautus. How that happened I cannot 
easily divine, since I do not take him to have been master 
of Latin enough to read it in the original, and I know of 
no translation of Plautus so old as his time. 

" ' T is not very easie to determine which way of writing 
he was most excellent in. There is certainly a great deal 
of entertainment in his comical humours ; and tho' they 
did not then strike at all ranks of people, as the satyr of 
the present age has taken the liberty to do, yet there is a 
pleasing and well-distinguish'd variety in those characters 
which he thought fit to meddle with. Falstaff is allow'd 



204 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

by everybody to be a masterpiece ; the character is always 
well sustain'd, tho' drawn out into the length of three plays ; 
and even the account of his death given by his old land- 
lady Mrs. Quickly, in the first act of ' Henry V.,' tho' it be 
extremely natural, is yet as diverting as any part of his 
life. If there be any fault in the draught he has made of 
this lewd old fellow, it is that tho' he has made him a 
thief, lying, cowardly, vainglorious, and in short every 
way vicious, yet he has given him so much wit as to make 
him almost too agreeable ; and I don't know whether 
some people have not, in remembrance of the diversion 
he had formerly afforded 'em, been sorry to see his friend 
Hal use him so scurvily when he comes to the crown in 
the end of the second part of 'Henry the Fourth.' 
Amongst other extravagances in the 'Merry Wives of 
Windsor,' he has made him a deer-stealer, that he might 
at the same time remember his Warwickshire prosecutor 
under the name of Justice Shallow ; he has given him very 
near the same coat-of-arms which Dugdale, in his * Antiqui- 
ties ■ of that county, describes for a family there, and makes 
the Welsh parson descant very pleasantly upon 'em. 

" ' Hamlet ' is founded on much the same tale with the 
' Electra ' of Sophocles. In each of 'em a young prince is 
engag'd to revenge the death of his father ; their mothers 
are equally guilty, are both concern'd in the murder of 
their husbands, and are afterwards married to the mur- 
derers. I cannot leave < Hamlet ' without taking notice 
of the advantage with which we have seen this master- 
piece of Shakespear distinguish itself upon the stage by 
Mr. Betterton's fine performance of that part, — a man 
who tho' he had no other good qualities, as he has a great 
many, must have made his way into the esteem of all 
men of letters by this only excellency. No man is better 
acquainted with Shake spear's manner of expression ; and 
indeed he has study'd him so well, and is so much a master 
of him, that whatever part of his he performs, he does it 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 205 

as if it had been written on purpose for him, and that 
the author had exactly conceiv'd it as he plays it. I must 
own a particular obligation to him for the most consider- 
able part of the passages relating to his life which I have 
here transmitted to the publick, his veneration for the 
memory of Shakespear having engag'd him to make a 
journey into Warwickshire on purpose to gather up what 
remains he could of a name for which he had so great a 
value. 

" The latter part of his life was spent, as all men of 
good sense will wish theirs may be, in ease, retirement, 
and the conversation of his friends. He had the good 
fortune to gather an estate equal to his occasion, and in 
that to his wish, and is said to have spent some years 
before his death at his native Stratford. His pleasurable 
wit and good-nature engag'd him in the acquaintance, and 
entitled him to the friendship, of the gentlemen of the 
neighborhood. . . . He dy'd in the 53d year of his age, 
and was bury'd on the north side of the chancel, in 
the great Church at Stratford, where a monument is 
plac'd in the wall. . . . He had three daughters, of which 
two liv'd to be marry'd, — Judith, the elder, to one Mr. 
Thomas Quiney, by whom she had three sons, who all 
dy'd without children ; and Susannah, who was his 
favourite, to Dr. John Hall, a physician of good reputa- 
tion in that country. She left one child only, a daughter, 
who was marry'd first to Thomas Nash, esq., and after- 
wards to Sir John Bernard of Abbington, but dy'd like- 
wise without issue. This is what I could learn of any 
note either relating to himself or family. The character 
of the man is best seen in his writings. But since Ben 
Jonson has made a sort of an essay towards it in his 
< Discoveries,' tho', as I have before hinted, he was not 
very cordial in his friendship, I will venture to give it in 
his words : ' I remember the players,' etc." 



206 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

The following, also from Howe's Life, is taken 
from the Johnson-Steevens Shakespeare. It does 
not follow Rowe's orthography : — 

" His magick has something in it very solemn and very 
poetical ; and that extravagant character of Caliban is 
mighty well sustained ; shews a wonderful invention in 
the author, who could strike out such a particular wild 
image, and is certainly one of the finest and most uncom- 
mon grotesques that ever was seen. The observation, 
which I have been hrf ormed three very great men [Lord 
Falkland, Lord C. J. Vaughan, and Mr. Selden] concurred 
in making upon this part, was extremely just : That 
Shakespeare had not only found out a new character in his 
Caliban, but had also devised and adapted a new manner of 
language for that character.'' 



The End. 



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